Homosexuality in the Holocaust

During the Holocaust, homosexual individuals were one of the many groups which the Nazis persecuted. There is quite little known about the experiences of homosexual Holocaust survivors, due to SS officials destroying evidence, and the continued discrimination that they faced after ‘liberation’ in 1945. As such, these narratives have become more and more sparse with time.

Under Nazi ideology, homosexuality was a vice to society, regarded as a “contagious social disease” (p.194). The intensity of persecution of homosexuals varied from situation to situation, and would target all groups of society, even high ranking political officials.

Pre-War Era (1933-1939)

Homosexual persecution began in 1933 right after Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. In the years preceding World War II, several gay professionals were attacked or arrested and gay bars and rights groups were shut down and/or disbanded. Prior to the Nazi regime, Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code made homosexual acts between men illegal, though this law was not heavily enforced by the Weimar Republic; once the Nazis rose to power, it was radically intensified.

During this time, the Gestapo (the Nazi Party’s secret police) were registering men engaging in homosexual activities, creating lists that they would use during raids. In the time that the Nazi Party was in power (1933-1945), the Gestapo registered around 100,000 men as ‘homosexual’ . Between 1935 and 1936, the state's powers governing the persecution of homosexual men were expanded, allowing for Paragraph 175 to encompass the thought of homosexual activity as a crime, as well the creation of several state offices to incarcerate and deport homosexual men to concentration camps.

Identities

Gay Men

Homosexual men were the primary target for the Nazi persecution of homosexuality. The gay identity was in conflict with several ideals of Nazi ideology, since the it was built upon the goal of a superior and pure Aryan race; homosexuality, due to its non-procreative nature, went against this fundamental tenet. As such, the Nazis viewed these individuals as expendable, as they could not contribute to this goal of a dominant pure race.

Moreover, the Third Reich was a highly patriarchal and masculinist society which strictly upheld traditional gender roles. This involved an active, martial, and tough man as the ideal masculine, with the domestic, passive and obedient woman as the ideal feminine. Gay men disrupted such a binary, and due to this threat, the Nazis subsequently targeted them for persecution.

Heinrich Himmler was a particular fanatic about his contempt and radical views of persecution of gay men, something that other Nazi leaders were not as passionate about; some Nazi officials, including Hitler himself, employed a more pragmatic view towards their persecution of homosexuality.

It is important to note that non-German homosexual men were not particularly targeted during Nazi persecution, unless they had relations with German men.

Lesbians & Trans Individuals

Lesbian and trans individuals were not direct targets of persecution by the Nazi regime. Rather than state programs attacking them, lesbians and trans people faced more social stigma and pressure from the Gestapo. Although their identities did violate gender norms, the Nazis did not persecute lesbians for the purpose that they retained their reproductive capabilities.

Neighbours could report suspected lesbian activity to the Gestapo, who could incarcerate them or send them to concentration camps. However, these punishments were much less severe compared to the persecution of homosexual men; if they were sent to a concentration camp, they would be assigned the label of ‘asocial’ rather than ‘homosexual’. Lesbians were sometimes sent to concentration camps, though it would often be for reasons alternative to their sexual orientation, such as being Jewish.

Trans individuals navigated the Third Reich society in a particular way. For male-to-female (MTF) trans people, they were instantly generalized to the category of homosexual, whereas female-to-male (FTM) trans people had more freedom. Though they did conflict with police occasionally, the Nazi regime often defaulted to the Weimar procedure on allowing cross-dressing (with a permit). FTM trans persons could exist in the Third Reich, so long as they rejected homosexuality.

Concentration Camps

The pink triangle marked 'homosexual' prisoners in concentration camps, and has now become a symbol for LGBTQ+ rights.

Homosexuals faced some of the harshest treatment in the concentration camp system. Of the 100,000 men registered as homosexual by the Gestapo, approximately 5000 – 15,000 of them were interned at concentration camps, though this statistic has been disputed. Homosexual prisoners were labeled with the pink triangle on their clothes, which has become a symbol for modern LGBTQ+ rights. In the camps, homosexuals, along with the Jews, received some of the worst treatment among all of the various groups interned. The abuse they faced ranged from the boiling of genitalia, anal penetration with broomsticks, and being used for target practice by SS soldiers.Homosexual prisoners were separated from other prisoners in the camp in order to contain their ‘social disease’, which contributed to personal ostracization .

Homosexuals often died at the hand of torture, exhaustion due to labour/poor living conditions, or sometimes suicide. In the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, findings suggest that homosexual prisoners were more likely to commit suicide, though researchers do acknowledge that many suicides may be falsified by the Nazis or neglected (i.e.. making failed escape attempts, resulting in death by shooting or electrocution by a fence).

One of the aims of the Nazi regime was to 'cure' homosexuality and reinforce their patriarchal and procreative view of society. This was done through a variety of ways, such as hard labour or installing a brothel within the camp with female prisoners from other camps. Castration was also offered and attempted as a cure, where sentences could be lowered or rescinded if prisoners underwent the procedure; however, this castration did not ‘cure’ this sexual desire, but only decreased libido.

Experimentation

Homosexual prisoners were subjected to human experiments. These prisoners were subjects for hormone therapy and experimentation, testing for vaccines (and possible illness/diseases), as well the testing of psychotropic drugs. As a result, homosexual prisoners faced “illness, mutilation, and even death,” with no scientific knowledge produced.