By Lori Cui, VI Form

Editor’s Note: This research paper was written over the summer in a 10-week intensive program as part of the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies research cohort.

Introduction 

Most people do not know that between 10,000 and 15,000 homosexual men died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Their stories are almost completely erased from history, and their voices silenced if they survived the deadly camps. During the Nazi regime, around 100,000 men were arrested for violating Paragraph 175, the German law that criminalized homosexuality. Despite having one of the highest mortality rates in concentration camps, homosexual men only received formal reparations from the German government in 2001 for their suffering, nearly six decades after the end of the war. By that time, many survivors had passed away or struggled to file for reparations formally. Researchers found that fewer than 10 survivors were alive to see the formal reparations in the 21^st century. These prisoners wore pink triangle badges in the concentration camps to differentiate them. Researchers speculate that the prisoner badge was pink as a way to shame the men for their homosexuality, implying that they were feminine because of their sexual preference. Others hypothesize that it was because the word for pink in German was similar to the slang word for homosexual male prostitutes: Rosarote, also called pinks or rosies.

The rise of the Nazi regime caused the downfall of the flourishing LGBTQ+ scene in the Weimar Republic. Berlin, the capital of Germany, was globally renowned for its LGBTQ+ bars for lesbians, gay men, and other individuals curious to explore their sexuality or gender expression. Publications like Der Eigene (His Own Self), Die Freundin (The Girlfriend), and Frauenliebe (Women’s Love) helped LGBTQ+ communities stay connected through publishing ads for meet-ups and events. However, a month after Hitler (the head of the Nazi Party) was appointed chancellor of Germany, he outlawed all LGBTQ+ bars and organizations and jailed many organization directors. As the Nazis gained more power in the Reichstag, they conducted mass raids and arrests of homosexuals. This was justified through homophobic Nazi propaganda carefully orchestrated to paint homosexuals as “degenerates” and the malaise of the “purified Third Reich.” 

With primary sources like survivor memoirs and books by researchers who studied the issue post-war, this paper aims to paint a fuller picture of Nazi homophobia and its repercussions. After World War II and “liberation” by the Allied Powers, homosexuals continued to face persecution and discrimination for their sexuality. The homophobic propaganda, “re-education,” and treatment of prisoners in concentration camps by the Nazis left a lasting bigoted legacy in the minds of the German and other European civilians. This naturalized the exclusion of survivors from receiving recognition and reparations and inhibited their ability to rejoin post-war society.

Historical Background 

Paragraph 175, the German penal code in the constitution that specifically criminalized sex between two males, was adopted after Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia created Germany in 1871. However, the law was rarely enforced. Consenting adults seldom filed complaints and the growing sexual liberation movement in Germany in the early 1900s created a flourishing LGBTQ+ scene. Berlin was known as a “homosexual Eden” around the world, attracting international visitors to witness and enjoy sexual freedom. The acceptance of the Weimar Republic gradually declined as the Nazis rose in political power and promoted homophobic propaganda. 

The Nazis labeled homosexuals, specifically homosexual men, as “degenerates” of the Third Reich because they could not produce offspring to increase the population of Germany. Most homosexuals were Aryan men, which the Nazis wanted to keep within the country to build a “master Aryan race” in which all citizens were blond and blue-eyed. However, their “race” did not protect them from being persecuted as homosexuals. For a decade, the Nazis tried to find a cure for homosexuality by using the fertility of Aryan men for reproduction. The Nazis spread homophobic propaganda in their newspapers to millions of readers, such as a conspiracy theory that homosexuality was a contagious disease that could spread to the younger generation. This justified the Nazi’s persecution as they were “containing” the disease.

Interestingly, one of the highest-ranking Nazi officials, who helped push the party to power, was a homosexual. Ernst Röhm was the head of the SA, or the Sturmabteilung, the Nazi paramilitary unit that used violence to suppress political opposition. Röhm was an early supporter of Hitler and one of his closest confidants. Röhm’s homosexuality was not hidden. Hitler knew about his friend’s sexuality and continually made excuses for him. Although the Nazis were homophobic, Hitler defended Röhm in the 1930s by saying that “[Röhm’s] private life cannot be an object of scrutiny unless it conflicts with basic principles of National Socialist ideology” and that an SA officer could only be held accountable for “not performing his official duties.” However, matters changed drastically when Röhm’s opponents within the party framed him for plotting to overthrow Hitler. 

On June 28, 1935, the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler and the SS (Schutzwaffel), conducted a purge within the Nazi party. They arrested leaders of the SA and Röhm on false charges. Hitler would declare that Röhm’s sexuality was a part of the reason for his execution a few days later. He also called for a complete cleanse of homosexuality within the Nazi Party after the purge, calling for the expulsion of “ludicrous monkeys.” In Germany, many homosexuals had ignored the homophobic Nazis and their rise to power because they believed that Röhm’s position would protect them from persecution. After the Night of the Long Knives, however, Hitler justified purging homosexuality, an “undesirable trait” as the moral thing to do. One year after Röhm’s execution, the Nazis rewrote Paragraph 175 to be stricter, criminalizing homosexual “insinuations” and using gossip as evidence for someone’s homosexuality. From the loose wording of “criminally indecent” activities to specifying homosexual prostitution and a minimum three-year jail sentence for violating the penal code, the days of gay Berlin and Germany were over.

To better portray the homophobic policies of the Nazis and the post-war developments of the criminalization of homosexuality, Figures 1 and 2 show a timeline of events. 

Figure 1: A Timeline of Events in Germany Relating to Homosexuals (1871-1940)

Figure 2: A Timeline of Events in Germany Relating to Homosexuals (1941-2001/modern-day)

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