HOMOSEXUALS As Part of the Nazis’ Attempt to Purify
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HOMOSEXUALS UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM As part of the Nazis’ attempt to purify German society and propagate an “Aryan master race,” they condemned homosexuals as “socially aberrant.” Soon after taking office on January 30, 1933, Hitler banned all homosexual and lesbian organizations. Brownshirted storm troopers raided the institutions and gathering places of homosexuals. Greatly weakened and driven under- ground, this subculture had flourished in the relative freedom of the 1920s, in Cover: A portrait of the pubs and cafes of Berlin, Hamburg, two companions. Berlin, Germany, 1926. Schwules Munich, Bremen, and other cities. Museum, Berlin. HOMOSEXUALS: VICTIMS OF THE NAZI ERA On May 6, 1933, Nazis In 1934, a special Gestapo ransacked the “Institute (Secret State Police) division for Sexual Science” in on homosexuals was set up. Berlin; four days later as One of its first acts was to part of large public burn- order the police “pink lists” ings of books viewed as from all over Germany. “un-German,” thousands The police had been compil- of books plundered from the ing these lists of suspected Institute’s library were homosexual men since 1900. thrown into a huge bonfire. On September 1, 1935, a The institute was founded harsher, amended version Auschwitz mug shot in 1919 by Dr. Magnus of Paragraph 175 of the of homosexual August Hirschfeld (1868–1935). Criminal Code, originally Pfeiffer, a servant, who It sponsored research and framed in 1871, went into was born August 8, 1895, in Weferlingen, discussion on marital prob- effect, punishing a broad Germany. He arrived lems, sexually transmitted range of “lewd and lascivi- at Auschwitz on diseases, and laws relating ous” behavior between men. November 1, 1941, and died there to sexual offenses, abortion, In 1936 Nazi leader December 28, 1941. and homosexuality. The Heinrich Himmler created a author of many works, Reich Central Office for the Mug shot of Friedrich Althoff, a Hirschfeld, himself a homo- Combating of Homosexuality waiter from sexual, led efforts for three and Abortion: Special Office Düsseldorf, who was decades to reform laws crim- (II S), a subdepartment of born May 16, 1899. He was arrested on inalizing homosexuality. (In Executive Department II of charges of homosexu- 1933 Hirschfeld happened the Gestapo. The linking of ality. Düsseldorf, to be in France, where he homosexuality and abortion Germany, January 25, 1939. remained until his death.) reflected the Nazi regime’s (Top) State Museum Auschwitz, Oswiecim, Poland. (Bottom) Nordrhein- Westfälisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Düsseldorf, RW 58-61940. population policies to pro- Germany in 1928. Between A HOMOSEXUAL RECALLS 1933 mote a higher birthrate of 1933–45, an estimated its “Aryan” population. On 100,000 men were arrested One man (right) recounts how the this subject, Himmler spoke as homosexuals, and of Nazis’ assumption of Then came the thunderbolt of the 30 January 1933, and we in Bad Tölz on February 18, these, some 50,000 officially power in 1933 limited knew that a change of political climate had taken place. What we homosexuals’ freedom 1937, before a group of high- defined homosexuals were had tried to prevent, had taken place. and created an atmos- ranking SS officers on the sentenced. Most of these phere of fear. Over the years, more and more of my political friends disap- dangers both homosexuality men spent time in regular peared, of my Jewish and of my homosexual friends. Fear came over us with the increasingly coordinated pressure of the Nazis. and abortion posed to the prisons, and an estimated For heaven’s sake not to attract attention, to exercise restraint. German birthrate. 5,000 to 15,000 of the total 1933 was the starting-point for the persecution of homosexuals. Under the revised Para- sentenced were incarcerated Already in this year we heard of raids on homosexual pubs and graph 175 and the creation in concentration camps. meeting places. Maybe individual, politically uneducated homo- of Special Office II S, the How many of these 5,000 sexuals who were only interested in immediate gratification did not recognize the significance of the year 1933, but for us homo- number of prosecutions to 15,000 “175ers” perished sexuals who were also politically active, who had defended the increased sharply, peaking in the concentration camps Weimar Republic, and who had tried to forestall the Nazi threat, in the years 1937–1939. will probably never be 1933 initially signified a reinforcing of our resistance. Half of all convictions for known. Historical research In order not to mutually incriminate ourselves, we decided to homosexual activity under to date has been very limited. no longer recognize each other. When we came across each other the Nazi regime occurred One leading scholar, in the street, we passed by without looking at one another. There were certain possibilities for us to meet, but that never happened during these years. The Ruediger Lautmann, in public. police stepped up raids on believes that the death For a politicized homosexual, visiting places which were part of homosexual meeting places, rate for “175ers” in the the homosexual subculture was too dangerous. Friends told me seized address books of camps may have been that raids on bars were becoming more frequent. And someone arrested men to find addi- as high as sixty percent. had written on the wall of the subway tunnel of the Hamburg S- tional suspects, and created All prisoners of the camps Bahn between Dammtor station and the main station, “Street of the Lost.” That was some sort of film or book title. We found this networks of informers to wore marks of various colors graffiti very amusing, for most of us tried to cope with the thing by compile lists of names and and shapes, which allowed developing a sort of gallows humor. make arrests. guards and camp function- An estimated 1.2 million aries to identify them by cate- From Hans-Georg Stümke and Rudi Finkler, Rosa Winkel, Rosa Listen, men were homosexuals in gory. The uniforms of those Homosexuelle und ‘Gesundes Volksempfinden’ von Auschwitz bis heute (Hamburg, 1981), trans. in Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 (New York, 1991), pp. 182–83. PARAGRAPH 175 sentenced as homosexuals men to heterosexuals: the bore various identifying surgical insertion of a marks, including a large capsule which released the black dot and a large male hormone testosterone. 175. A male who commits lewd and lascivious acts with another male or permits himself to be so abused for lewd and lascivious “175” drawn on the back Such procedures reflected acts, shall be punished by imprisonment. In a case of a participant of the jacket. Later a pink the desire by Himmler and under 21 years of age at the time of the commission of the act, the triangular patch (rosa others to find a medical court may, in especially slight cases, refrain from punishment. Winkel) appeared. solution to homosexuality. 175a. Confinement in a penitentiary not to exceed ten years Conditions in the camps The vast majority of homo- and, under extenuating circumstances, imprisonment for not less than three months shall be imposed: were generally harsh for all sexual victims were males; 1. Upon a male who, with force or with threat of imminent dan- inmates, many of whom died lesbians were not subjected ger to life and limb, compels another male to commit lewd and from hunger, disease, to systematic persecution. lascivious acts with him or compels the other party to submit to exhaustion, exposure to the While lesbian bars were abuse for lewd and lascivious acts; cold, and brutal treatment. closed, few women are 2. Upon a male who, by abuse of a relationship of dependence Many survivors have testi- believed to have been arrest- upon him, in consequence of service, employment, or subordina- tion, induces another male to commit lewd and lascivious acts fied that men with pink ed. Paragraph 175 did not with him or to submit to being abused for such acts; triangles were often treated mention female homosexual- 3. Upon a male who being over 21 years of age induces another particularly severely by ity. Lesbianism was seen by male under 21 years of age to commit lewd and lascivious acts guards and inmates alike many Nazi officials as alien with him or to submit to being abused for such acts; because of widespread biases to the nature of the Aryan 4. Upon a male who professionally engages in lewd and lascivi- against homosexuals. As was woman. In some cases, the ous acts with other men, or submits to such abuse by other men, or offers himself for lewd and lascivious acts with other men. true with other prisoner police arrested lesbians as 175b. Lewd and lascivious acts contrary to nature between categories, some homosexu- “asocials” or “prostitutes.” human beings and animals shall be punished by imprisonment; In 1935 the Nazi als were also victims of One woman, Henny loss of civil rights may also be imposed. regime revised cruel medical experiments, Schermann, was arrested in Paragraph 175 of the including castration. At 1940 in Frankfurt and was German criminal code to make illegal a very Buchenwald concentration labelled “licentious lesbian” broad range of camp, SS physician Dr. Carl on her mug shot; but she was behavior between men. This is the text of Vaernet performed opera- also a “stateless Jew,” suffi- the revised law (left). tions designed to convert cient cause for deportation. English translation by Warren Johannson and William Percy in “Homosexuals in Nazi Germany,” Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, Vol. 7 (1990). Homosexuals~ Victims of the Nazi Era~ 1933-1945 Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jew and homosexual, founded the Institute for Sexual Sciences.