Homosexual persecution in the
Homosexual persecution in theFor most of the medieval and early modern times death was the penalty for homosexual acts. Due to the impact of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, many German States, starting with Bavaria , decriminalized homosexuality. Prussia was the exception. It heightened legislation concerning this issue which eventually was carried over in 1871 on to the Reich as a whole. (Burleigh and Wipperman, 184).
Homosexuals were never recognized as "victims" of Nazi persecution in either of the post-war German states. This is despite the fact that while the concentration camps they were branded with the pink triangle, signifying sexual preference. They were harshly mistreated by camp guards and fellow inmates. Two main factors produced this unsatisfactory state of affairs. For one, it is a reflection of mass widespread dislike toward homosexuals and their indecisiveness to prosecute their instigators due to fear of rejection among their peers towards their preference. Secondly, the interpretation of paragraph 175 of 1871 Reich criminal code, criminalizing �acts of indecency' as well as sexual intercourse between two men, was not repealed until 1969. This meant that homosexuals who had been persecuted and sent to concentration camps could now be punished under the same law. Also, homosexuals were not counted among Hitler's victims. Neither post-war German state had a "relevant" record in this area (Burleigh and Wipperman, 183). In 1935, the Reichstag amended paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code to close what were seen as loopholes in the current law. The new law had three parts. One of them stating "A male who commits a sex offense with another male or allows himself to be used by another male for a sex offense shall be punished with imprisonment."
Very little has been written about the tens of thousands of homosexuals who were the damnedest of the damned, the outcasts among the outcasts in the concentration camps. There are really only estimates of figures. During the twelve years of Nazi rule, nearly 50,000 were convicted of the crime of homosexuality. The majority ended up in concentration camps, and virtually all of them perished. According to a recent study, at least 500,000 gays died in the Holocaust. As Stefan Lorant observed in 1935, the homosexuals "lived in a dream", hoping that the heyday of gays in Germany of the 1920's would last forever. Their awakening was terrible. Yet, the few survivors among them did not qualify for postwar restitution as the Jews or the politicians, because as homosexuals they were outside the law. By German law, homosexuality was a crime. After the prison sentences most homosexuals were automatically shipped to concentration camps. In 1935, a new law legalized the �compulsory sterilization (often in fact castration) of homosexuals.' A special section of the Gestapo dealt with them. Along with epileptics, schizophrenics, and other "degenerates", they were being eliminated. Yet homosexuality was still...
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