Brutal Torture of Gay Men under Nazi Regime - Nazi Germany
Brutal Torture of Gay Men under Nazi Regime - Nazi Germany
Brutal Torture of Gay Men under Nazi Regime - Nazi Germany. Despite the fact that homosexuality was illegal, in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, there were indications of nascent and growing gay communities in Germany Political and social conditions even allowed for people to publicly campaign for the decriminalization of sexual relations between men and the repeal of “Paragraph 175” which from 1871 banned sexual relations between men. In terms of legal policy relating to the German criminal code, the Nazi Party opposed efforts to decriminalize sexual relations between men and repeal Paragraph 175. The Nazi Party denounced homosexuality as a deviation from normal behavior that was completely antithetical to its fundamental belief in the need to increase the pure, “Aryan” population and proper family life. However, there were known gay men even in the Nazi movement, most notably Ernst Röhm who used the word “same-sex oriented”, to describe himself. After the Nazis came to power on the 30th of January, 1933, they sought to dismantle the visible gay cultures and networks that had developed during the Weimar Republic. The Nazis used new laws and police practices to arrest and detain without trial a limited number of gay men beginning in late 1933 and early 1934. The Nazi German judicial system also introduced castration into legal practice. As of late 1933, courts could order mandatory castration for certain sexual offenders. However, at least initially, men arrested under Paragraph 175 could not be castrated without their supposed consent but in some cases, men imprisoned under this statute could secure early release if they volunteered to be castrated. One such man was Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim. In fall 1934, Reinhard Heydrich ordered the police of all large cities to make a list of known homosexuals. These lists have come to be known as the “pink lists,” although this is not what the Nazis or the police called them. In late 1934, the Gestapo, which was the official political police, raided gay bars and made mass arrests of homosexual men; most of whom were not involved in politics. Three events in the years 1934–1936 radicalized the Nazi regime’s campaign against homosexuality and led to more systematic oppression of gay men. First was the murder of Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders in June–July 1934. Second, in June 1935 the Nazis revised Paragraph 175, the statute of the German criminal code that banned sexual relations between men. Finally, in 1936 SS leader and Chief of the German Police Heinrich Himmler established the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion. The Nazi campaign against homosexuality intensified in 1935–1936. In the mid- to late 1930s, the police raided bars and other meeting places that they believed to be popular with gay men. A neighbor, acquaintance, colleague, friend, or family member could inform the police of their suspicions. There were gay men who took the risk of resisting the Nazi state for political and personal reasons. Some gay men helped hide Jews or joined underground anti-Nazi resistance groups. Such was a case of Willem Arondeus, a gay member of the Dutch resistance, who on the 27th of March 1943, during the German occupation of the Netherlands, participated in an attack on the Amsterdam Population Registry offices. Not all of approximately 100,000 men arrested under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi regime shared the same fate. Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps as “homosexual” offenders. The pink triangle called attention to this prisoner population as a distinct group within the concentration camp system. According to many survivor accounts, pink triangle prisoners were among the most abused groups in the camps. SS guards murdered homosexual prisoners out of cruelty or during sadistic games. Beginning in November 1942, concentration camp commandants officially had the power to order the forced castration of pink triangle prisoners.
Josef Kohout, imprisoned under Paragraph 175, was 24 when he was arrested in March 1939 when his Christmas card to his male lover had been intercepted.
Scholars estimate that there were approximately 100,000 arrests under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi regime. More than 53,000 resulted in convictions.
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Content
0.24 -> The 30th of January 1933, Germany. Adolf Hitler
is appointed chancellor of Germany and the Nazi
8.1 -> regime quickly begins to restrict the
civil and human rights of the Jews and
12 -> other individuals deemed to be "enemies of
the state," and opens the first concentration
16.26 -> camp – Dachau – situated near Munich.
Among those arrested are not only the Jews
22.26 -> and political prisoners, but also thousands
of homosexual men whom the Nazis track down
27.3 -> thanks to denunciations from the public
who refer to them as being “perverse”.
32.64 -> Approximately 100,000 men are arrested and
more than 53,000 result in convictions. Those
40.32 -> sent to concentration camps are among the
most abused groups and are often subjected
44.82 -> not only to brutal torture and inhuman
medical experiments but also sexual abuse.
50.88 -> Because of widespread homophobia, these homosexual
inmates rarely benefit from solidarity from
56.94 -> prejudiced fellow prisoners and are left isolated
and powerless within the prisoner hierarchy.
62.94 -> During the Nazi era, between 5,000 and
66.78 -> 15,000 men are imprisoned in concentration
camps as “homosexual” offenders. Out of them,
72.3 -> thousands would die and those who would survive,
would remain marked to the end of their lives
78.48 -> Despite the fact that homosexuality was
illegal, in the mid- to late-nineteenth century,
83.28 -> there were indications of nascent and
growing gay communities in Germany
87.06 -> Political and social conditions even
allowed for people to publicly campaign
91.38 -> for the decriminalization of sexual
relations between men and the repeal
95.88 -> of “Paragraph 175” which from 1871
banned sexual relations between men.
102.78 -> Before coming into power, Adolf Hitler, the leader
of the Nazi Party, and many other Nazi leaders
108.66 -> condemned Weimar culture, which was the emergence
of the arts and sciences that happened in Germany
114.42 -> between 1918 and 1933, as decadent and degenerate.
Part of this condemnation was a rejection of
122.58 -> the era’s open expressions of sexuality,
including the visibility of gay communities.
128.34 -> Some prominent Nazis, including Alfred Rosenberg
and Heinrich Himmler, were clearly homophobic.
134.4 -> However, Hitler and other Nazi leaders rarely
spoke publicly about homosexuality, and they
140.34 -> rather focused on such issues as the creation of
a Greater German state, the Jews, and the economy.
145.68 -> In terms of legal policy relating to the German
criminal code, the Nazi Party opposed efforts
152.16 -> to decriminalize sexual relations between men
and repeal Paragraph 175. During parliamentary
158.22 -> debates, Nazis claimed that sexual relations
between men were a destructive vice that would
163.62 -> lead to the ruin of German people. The
Nazi Party denounced homosexuality as a
169.44 -> deviation from normal behavior that
was completely antithetical to its
173.22 -> fundamental belief in the need to increase the
pure, "Aryan" population and proper family life.
178.44 -> The Nazis saw the purpose of sexual relations as
reproduction, rather than pleasure, and viewed
184.32 -> homosexuality as a threat to
the superior "Aryan" race.
188.22 -> They asserted these relations should be even more
severely punished than current German law allowed.
194.16 -> However, there were known gay
men even in the Nazi movement,
197.76 -> most notably Ernst Röhm who used the word
“same-sex oriented”, to describe himself.
204 -> Röhm was the leader of the SA, which was a
paramilitary organization associated with the
209.4 -> Nazi Party, also known as the Storm Troopers and
the Brownshirts, for the color of their uniform
214.34 -> For Ernst Röhm, his sexuality did not conflict
with Nazi ideology or compromise his role as
221.34 -> SA leader. In Röhm’s understanding,
legalizing sexual relations between
225.96 -> men was not about encouraging liberal
democratic rights or tolerance. Rather,
230.46 -> he believed it was about the
overthrow of mainstream morality.
234.54 -> Röhm wrote that the “prudery” of some of his
fellow Nazis did not seem revolutionary to him.
240.42 -> Röhm’s sexuality was an open secret in
the Nazi Party that turned into a public
245.16 -> scandal in 1931 when a leftist
newspaper outed Röhm as gay.
250.14 -> Despite the controversy, Hitler defended his
loyal aide and longtime friend who remained
255.36 -> in charge of the SA until 1934 when he ordered
Röhm’s execution. Hitler, pressured by German
262.32 -> army commanders, whose support he would need to
become the President, directed the SS, led by
267.3 -> Heinrich Himmler, to murder not only Röhm but also
300 of his men, some of whom were also homosexual.
274.38 -> However, Röhm’s position in the
Nazi leadership had not tempered the
278.28 -> movement’s condemnation of homosexuality and
gay communities even before he was murdered.
283.74 -> After the Nazis came to power on the 30th of
January, 1933, they sought to dismantle the
289.68 -> visible gay cultures and networks that had
developed during the Weimar Republic which
293.88 -> was the government of Germany from 1918 to
1933. One of the Nazis’ first actions against
299.94 -> gay communities was to close gay bars and other
meeting spots across Germany. However, in cities
305.4 -> like Berlin and Hamburg, some established
gay bars were able to remain open until the
310.26 -> mid-1930s. Underground gay meeting places remained
open even later. Nonetheless, the Nazi closures
317.7 -> and increased police surveillance made it far more
difficult for gay men to connect with each other.
322.92 -> Another early action undertaken by the Nazi
regime was the elimination of gay newspapers,
327.9 -> journals, and publishing houses. Newspapers had
been one of the primary means of communication in
333.96 -> Germany’s gay communities. In addition, the Nazi
regime also forced gay associations to dissolve.
339.96 -> In a further escalation, the Nazis used
new laws and police practices to arrest
345 -> and detain without trial a limited number of
gay men beginning in late 1933 and early 1934.
352.02 -> This was part of a larger Nazi effort to reduce
criminality. The Nazi regime instructed the
357.66 -> police to arrest people with previous convictions
for sexual crimes such as public exhibitionism,
362.46 -> sexual relations with a minor, and incest.
Those arrested included a number of gay men,
368.88 -> some of whom were imprisoned in the
regime’s early concentration camps.
373.32 -> The Nazi German judicial system also
introduced castration into legal practice.
378.9 -> As of late 1933, courts could order mandatory
castration for certain sexual offenders. However,
385.8 -> at least initially, men arrested under Paragraph
175 could not be castrated without their supposed
391.8 -> consent but in some cases, men imprisoned under
this statute could secure early release if they
397.38 -> volunteered to be castrated. One such man was
Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim. He was one of 230
404.7 -> homosexual men arrested by the SS in In January
1937. Von Groszheim was held for 10 months in
412.14 -> a cell with no heating, very little food, and no
toilet facilities. In 1938 he was re-arrested and
419.46 -> tortured. The Nazis finally released him, but only
on one condition that he agree to be castrated.
426.18 -> Friedrich-Paul submitted to the operation.
In 1943 he was arrested a third time and
432.9 -> imprisoned as a political prisoner
at Neuengamme concentration camp.
436.74 -> Von Groszheim survived the war and died in
2006 in Hamburg, Germany at the age of 99.
444.3 -> In fall 1934, Reinhard Heydrich ordered the
police of all large cities to make a list of
450.54 -> known homosexuals. These lists have come to be
known as the “pink lists,” although this is not
455.7 -> what the Nazis or the police called them.
In late 1934, the Gestapo, which was the
461.52 -> official political police, raided gay bars
and made mass arrests of homosexual men;
466.14 -> most of whom were not involved in politics.
Many of the men accused of homosexuality
471.42 -> would admit to acts that were not punishable under
Paragraph 175, expecting to be released. Instead,
477.78 -> they were mistreated and incarcerated in
concentration camps such as Lichtenburg or Dachau.
483.66 -> These early measures were just the beginning
of the Nazi campaign against homosexuality.
488.46 -> Three events in the years 1934–1936 radicalized
the Nazi regime’s campaign against homosexuality
496.2 -> and led to more systematic oppression of gay men.
First was the murder of Ernst Röhm and other SA
503.04 -> leaders in June–July 1934. These killings changed
how Nazi propaganda talked about homosexuality.
510.3 -> Röhm and the other SA leaders were murdered on
Hitler’s orders as part of a power struggle at the
516.12 -> highest levels of the German government and Nazi
Party. But after the purge, Nazi propaganda used
522.48 -> Röhm’s sexuality to help justify the killings.
In doing so, they played on much of the German
527.82 -> population’s prejudice against same-sex sexuality.
Second, in June 1935 the Nazis revised Paragraph
535.74 -> 175, the statute of the German criminal code
that banned sexual relations between men.
541.5 -> Under the new Nazi version of the statute, a wide
range of intimate and sexual behaviors could be,
546.66 -> and were, punished as criminal. In addition, the
Nazi revision stipulated that non-consensual and
552.9 -> coercive acts between men could result in
a sentence of up to ten years of hard labor
557.46 -> in prison. The revision provided the Nazi
regime with the legal tools necessary to
563.22 -> prosecute and persecute men engaged in same-sex
behavior in much larger numbers than before.
568.92 -> Finally, in 1936 SS leader and Chief of the
German Police Heinrich Himmler established
575.16 -> the Reich Central Office for the Combating
of Homosexuality and Abortion. This office
579.84 -> was part of the KRIPO, which was a criminal
police, and worked closely with the Gestapo.
584.88 -> The notoriously homophobic Himmler
saw both homosexuality and abortion
589.74 -> as threats to the German birth rate and
thus to the fate of the German people.
594.72 -> The Nazi campaign against homosexuality
intensified in 1935–1936. From this point forward,
602.1 -> the regime focused less on shutting down gay
meeting places. Instead, the Nazis prioritized
608.4 -> the arrest of individual men under Paragraph
175. In the Nazis’ understanding, these men
614.04 -> were “homosexual” offenders and thus criminals
and enemies of the state. Himmler believed that
619.56 -> targeting these men was necessary for the
protection, strengthening, and proliferation
624.3 -> of the German people. He directed the KRIPO and
Gestapo to diligently carry out a campaign against
630.84 -> homosexuality. And they did. These police forces
used raids, denunciations, and harsh interrogation
638.7 -> and torture methods to track down and arrest
men whom they believed violated Paragraph 175.
644.1 -> In the mid- to late 1930s, the police raided
bars and other meeting places that they believed
649.5 -> to be popular with gay men. The police set
up cordons around bars or other locations
654.78 -> and questioned anyone who seemed suspicious.
Some men caught up in raids would be released
660.42 -> if there was no proof against them. Those
whom the police deemed guilty would be tried
664.56 -> for violations of Paragraph 175 or, in some
cases, sent directly to a concentration camp.
670.92 -> Police raids were public and high-profile displays
in the Nazi campaign against homosexuality.
676.98 -> Through raids, the police threatened and
intimidated gay communities and individuals.
681.66 -> However, raids were not particularly effective.
The primary means through which the police tracked
687.18 -> down men for alleged violations of Paragraph
175 were tips or denunciations from the public
693.24 -> A neighbor, acquaintance, colleague, friend,
or family member could inform the police of
699.12 -> their suspicions. Many Germans tended to agree
with the Nazi attitude towards homosexuality.
704.64 -> Denouncers referred to those they denounced
as “effeminate,” “unmanly,” and “perverse.”
710.28 -> Unlike raids, denunciations
were a very effective tool of
714 -> repression and resulted in perhaps tens
of thousands of arrests and convictions.
718.8 -> The Gestapo and KRIPO interrogated men caught
up in raids, as well as those denounced. During
724.98 -> these often physically and psychologically brutal
interrogations, the police frequently insisted on
730.5 -> full confessions. Under the pressure of
harsh interrogation and torture methods,
734.7 -> men were forced to name their sexual partners.
This in turn helped the police to identify other
739.92 -> men to arrest and interrogate. In this way,
the police caught entire networks of gay men.
746.4 -> Gay men responded to Nazi persecution in different
ways and not all gay men made the same decisions.
752.7 -> Nor did they all have the same choices. Gay men
categorized by the Nazi regime as Aryan had far
759.66 -> more options than those categorized as Jews or
Roma and Sinti. Jewish and Romani gay men—above
766.2 -> all—faced persecution for racial reasons.
Some gay men, especially those with financial
771.36 -> resources, could try to hide their sexuality
and outwardly conform. Some broke off contacts
778.02 -> with their circles of friends or withdrew from
the public sphere. Others moved to new cities,
782.64 -> the countryside, or even to other countries. Some
gay men also entered marriages of convenience.
789.12 -> There were gay men who took the risk of
resisting the Nazi state for political
793.32 -> and personal reasons. Some gay men helped
hide Jews or joined underground anti-Nazi
799.08 -> resistance groups. Such was a case of Willem
Arondeus, a gay member of the Dutch resistance,
804.72 -> who on the 27th of March 1943, during the German
occupation of the Netherlands, participated in
811.5 -> an attack on the Amsterdam Population Registry
offices. His group managed to destroy 800,000
817.44 -> identity cards of Jews and others sought by the
Nazis, which was 15% of the records. However, soon
823.98 -> after the attack his unit was betrayed and on the
1st of April, 1943 the Nazis arrested Arondeus.
831.96 -> He pleaded guilty and took the full
blame, which may be the reason why two
836.34 -> young doctors were spared from execution
and given custodial sentences instead.
841.14 -> Before his execution, Arondeus made a point of
ensuring the public would be aware that he and
847.08 -> two other men in the group were gay, asking either
a friend or his lawyer to: "Tell the people that
852.18 -> homosexuals can be brave! “. Willem Arondeus was
executed on the 1st of July 1943 at the age of 48.
862.26 -> Not all of approximately 100,000 men arrested
under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi regime shared
869.28 -> the same fate. Typically, an arrest would lead
to a trial before a court. The court would either
875.1 -> acquit or convict the accused and sentence them
to a fixed prison sentence. The conviction rate
880.5 -> was approximately 50 percent. Most convicted
men were released after serving their prison
885.72 -> sentence. In rarer cases, the KRIPO or the Gestapo
would send a man directly to a concentration camp
892.14 -> as a “homosexual” offender. Typically, but
not always, men sent to concentration camps
897.36 -> in this way had multiple convictions
or other extenuating circumstances.
902.04 -> Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in
concentration camps as “homosexual” offenders.
908.04 -> This group of prisoners was typically required
to wear a pink triangle badge sewn onto their
913.26 -> camp uniforms. These badges enabled SS guards to
identify the alleged grounds for incarceration.
919.74 -> The pink triangle called attention to this
prisoner population as a distinct group
924.36 -> within the concentration camp system.
According to many survivor accounts,
928.62 -> pink triangle prisoners were among
the most abused groups in the camps.
932.88 -> SS guards murdered homosexual prisoners out of
cruelty or during sadistic games. It is recorded
939.48 -> that the SS used the pink triangles on the men’s
chests as targets to shoot at ‘for practice’
945.48 -> In mid-1942, almost all of the 200 homosexual
prisoners at Sachsenhausen were executed.
953.4 -> Sometimes pink triangle prisoners were assigned
the most grueling and demanding jobs in the camp
958.86 -> labor system. At camps like Mauthausen and
Flossenbürg, it was standard practice to
963.78 -> work homosexual prisoners to death which was
then disguised as being of natural causes.
968.28 -> They were often subjected not only to
physical abuse but also sexual abuse.
973.5 -> Pink triangle prisoners were raped by camp guards
as well as fellow inmates. In addition, they were
979.68 -> beaten and publicly humiliated. In Buchenwald
concentration camp, gay prisoners were also
985.98 -> given experimental treatments for typhus or were
subject to inhumane medical experiments such as
991.02 -> the attempt of changing their sexual orientations
by implanting a pellet that released testosterone.
996.42 -> Most of the victims died shortly after. Homosexual
prisoners were also used for testing opiates
1003.08 -> and Pervitin or they were given experimental
treatments for phosphorus burns at Sachsenhausen.
1009.5 -> Beginning in November 1942, concentration
camp commandants officially had the power
1014.84 -> to order the forced castration
of pink triangle prisoners.