The homosexuals
Who were the gay victims?
The German capital Berlin was the site of the Institute for Sexual Science, founded in 1919 by pioneering sexologist and homosexual reformer Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935). His term to describe homosexuals – 'the third sex' – was in common use in the city at the time.
On 30 January 1933, Germany's president Paul Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor. Among other restrictive actions, the Nazis began closing all gay bars and clubs and, in March, opened the first concentration camp. At the beginning of May, Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science was closed and, a short time later, all his books were burned – a fiery end to the first gay rights movement.
Before the war
In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo, told the Germans:
Just as we today have gone back to the ancient Germanic view on the question of marriage mixing different races, so too in our judgement of homosexuality – a symptom of degeneracy that could destroy our race – we must return to the guiding Nordic principle: extermination of degenerates.
But it had taken the Nazis some time to reach such a clear view against homosexuality.
Ernst Röhm, head of the Stormtroopers, had been publicly known to be gay after he appeared in court on homosexuality charges in 1925. But, despite the gossip about his sexuality, he had been central to the Nazis' rise to power, transforming the Stormtroopers into a three-million-strong vehicle for terror.
Röhm's homosexuality was cited as another reason for his murder
The Nazis' initial ambivalence towards gays had evaporated quickly when, in June 1934, Röhm and 300 others had been charged with conspiring to overthrow Hitler, who had ordered their execution without trial. Following this purge – the 'Night of the Long Knives' – Röhm's homosexuality was cited as another reason for his murder.
With Röhm out of the way, attacks on the gay community had escalated rapidly, and in June 1935, the Nazis had turned their attention to Paragraph 175 of the Reich Penal Code:
An unnatural sex act committed between persons of male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed.
This had been part of the German penal code since 1871. However, whereas previously the only punishable offence had been anal intercourse, the new Paragraph 175a had ushered in 10 new possible 'acts' between men as crimes worthy of punishment, including kissing, embracing and having homosexual fantasies.
During the war
Nazis did not refer to gays as Untermenschen ('subhumans') in the same way they did Jews: homosexuals were regarded as diseased and in need of treatment. Nevertheless, this diagnosis did not protect them from incarceration, and thousands were tortured, often to death, in an attempt to deter them from being gay.
Since Nazis regarded women as mere vessels for bearing children, lesbianism was never a major issue and gay women were not persecuted. Homosexual men, however, were seen as a threat to the state and likely to reduce the potential for waging war and purifying the German race.
When homosexuals first began arriving in prisons and concentration camps, they were marked out with 'Paragraph 175' written on their backs. Eventually, this badge was changed to a pink triangle, which was also used for sex offenders such as paedophiles – further associating gays with 'perverts'.
Survivors
The number of gay men killed by the Reich has never been fully established. It is not clear how many people lived in the gay community before or after World War II, and since many of those who were executed received no trial, there is only patchy evidence for the numbers who were imprisoned or sent to their deaths.
Nevertheless, researchers estimate that some 50,000 men were convicted for committing homosexual acts, and that 15,000 gays died in Auschwitz alone, many of them worked to death. According to the historian Rictor Norton, estimates for the total number of gay men killed by the Nazis range from 10,000 (undoubtedly too low) to 430,000 (probably too high).
In Germany, homosexual acts remained criminalised until the late 1960s, and gays convicted under the Nazis were not pardoned until 1998. Unlike other victims of the Nazis, no gay men have received compensation for what they went through.
For a fuller exploration of the experiences of gay men during Nazi persecution, see Pink Triangle.