Gay houlocast

Pre-war Homosexual life

Prior to the Holocaust and the Nazi increase to power, lesbian contact was legally banned under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, which was introduced on the 15 May 1871. Despite this, there was still a thriving gay community in many areas.

In Berlin there were a large number of openly homosexual, transvestite and lesbian bars where people met and socialised. The gay community was so well-known it even appeared in some tourist guides at the time.

At the turn of the twentieth century a growing queer rights movement formed, reaching its height in the 1920s. This movement was headed by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish physician and homosexual. Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexual Research in 1919, the first institute of its kind across the world.

Hostility towards queer men intensified monitoring the Nazi climb to power. Homosexuals were viewed as weak and unlikely to make excellent soldiers, or contribute to the ‘Aryan’ race by having children. As such they were catagorised as ‘ a-social ‘ by the Nazis.

Homosexuals were imprisoned, tortured, and deported to concentration camps by the Nazis. The final number of homosexuals that perished a

Remembering the Holocaust

Following several years of escalating persecution under the Nazi regime, more than six million Jewish people were murdered during the Holocaust. 

Alongside Romany Gypsies and people with disabilities, members of the LGBT community were also targeted by the Nazis in their efforts to eradicate entire communities who they portrayed as a threat to the ‘German people’.  

While Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s was home to a flourishing LGBT collective, since immortalised in Goodbye to Berlin and Cabaret, the Nazi rise to power was followed by a swift and brutal crackdown.  

Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested in Nazi Germany as ‘homosexuals’, of whom 50,000 were sentenced, and between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. Lesbians, bi women and trans people, whose experiences remain under-researched, were also targeted. It is unclear how many LGBT people perished in these camps.  

Holocaust Memorial Day gives us a chance to pause and indicate on this chapter in Jewish history, LGBT history, and our shared human history.  

Holocaust Memorial Diurnal gives us a chance to pa

In Poland, no one writes about the tragic fate of homosexuals during the Nazi era. Nothing has been published about the thousands of Polish homosexuals who became death camp victims. Ordinary embarrassment is the reason that scholars remain silent about Nazism’s homosexual victims.

Germany’s Golden Years The nineteenth century was the first period when voices openly defending homosexuality and refusing to condemn it were heard on a broad scale. The Napoleonic Code of 1804 served as the model for this kind of progress. Under the influence of the French Revolution, Bavaria repealed in 1813 the commandment that imposed penalties on homosexual unions. The government of Hannover soon followed suit. The German Reich, with Bismarck heading its government, was proclaimed in 1871, following the Franco-Prussian War. Article 175 of the unified legal code stated that “any dude who permits indecent relations with another man, or who takes part in such relations, shall be subject to punishment by imprisonment.”

The Berlin physician Magnus Hirschfeld zealously opposed Article 175. In 1897, he founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, which campaigned for the repeal gay houlocast

Gay people

Lesbian, gay and gender non-conforming life in Germany began to thrive at the beginning of the 20th century. Berlin in particular was one of the most liberal cities in Europe with a number of lesbian, gay and trans organisations, cafés, bars, publications and cultural events taking place.

Albrecht Becker – imprisoned by the Nazis for being gay

By the 1920s, Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code, which criminalised homosexual acts, was being applied less frequently. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science led the world in its scientific approach to sexual diversity and acted as an important public centre for Berlin lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender experience. In 1929 the process towards complete decriminalisation had been initiated within the German legislature.

Nazi conceptions of race, gender and eugenics dictated the Nazi regime’s hostile policy on homosexuality. Repression against gay men, lesbians and trans people commenced within days of Hitler becoming Chancellor. On 6 May 1933, the Nazis violently looted and closed The Institute for Sexual Science, burning its extensive collection on the streets. Unknown numbers of German gay men, lesbians and trans p

Oppression

1933-1938

Roma and Sinti were persecuted before, during and after the Holocaust.

Following the Nazi rise to might, the persecution of all Roma in Germany increased and eventually became genocidal . Prior to the Second World War, approximately 30,000 Roma lived in Germany, and just under a million lived across Europe.

The Nazis believed Roma were ‘non-Aryan’ and an inferior race which had genetically inherited criminal qualities. This belief was reinforced by the research of the eugenic scientist Dr. Robert Ritter . As a result of Ritter’s research and their racist beliefs about Roma, the Nazis subjected many Roma to forced sterilisations to prevent them from having children.

On 17 June 1936, Heinrich Himmler became Leader of the German Police. This new role gave Himmler unlimited control over the terror forces in Germany. Just under two years later, on 16 May 1938, Himmler established the Reich Central Office for Combating the Gypsy Nuisance. This office centralised efforts to persecute Roma living in the Third Reich.

On 8 December 1938, Himmler issued the Decree forCombating the Gypsy Plague. Amongst other actions, the decree ordered the creation of a nati