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In 1994, after the reunification of Germany, paragraph 175 was dropped from the criminal code.
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East Germany stopped enforcing the criminal code in 1968. After the war, paragraph 175 was still part of the criminal code in East and West Germany.
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The term “Homosexual Survivor” as an indexing term in the Visual History Archive specifically refers to men who were persecuted for their sexual orientation. The Indexing Term “Homosexual Survivor” Now used as a symbol of gay pride, the pink triangle was first used as a demarcation of Homosexual prisoners in the camp systems The Nazis believed ‘Aryan’ lesbians could be rehabilitated – and forced to bear children. Paragraph 175 did not target sexual relations between women. While it was not illegal to identify as a gay man, it was illegal to have sexual relationships as such. Paragraph 175 was part of the German criminal code from 1871 on, and it specifically targeted sexual relations between men. Other witnesses recall their encounters with gay men and women who provided rescue and aid at great risk to their own lives. Some of the witnesses were targeted by the Nazis for being gay under the German penal code, Paragraph 175. 'Hitler himself never condemned homosexuality, but he allowed the persecution of gays in order to disguise his own true colours,' Machtan says.In commemoration of Pride Month, the Institute recognizes the LGBTQ+ people persecuted under the Nazis from as early as 1933 to the end of the war in 1945, some of whose stories are in the Institute’s Visual History Archive.They are stories of survival, resistance, rescue, and heartbreaking loss. Why, then, did the Nazis persecute homosexuals, sending hundreds of thousands of them to their deaths in labour camps and the gas chambers? Machtan says that Hitler was particularly drawn to Rudolf Hess, his deputy, who was known in party circles as 'black Emma' and with whom he had spent months in Landsberg prison.
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But because his book never appeared in German, the startling information remained largely overlooked by historians. The police documents were published some years ago in Rome by Eugen Dollmann, a close friend of Heinrich Himmler's and also Hitler's interpreter. If Hitler had attempted to push him aside, he would have blackmailed him with the information, he said. He kept the Munich police file for years, as, he described it, 'a form of personal life insurance'. The police reports were collected by Otto von Lossow, a German army general who took part in suppressing the Hitler putsch in 1923.
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'As a "brown" activist, Hitler managed to lure many young men to his side, but not only for political reasons,' says Machtan.Īccording to a Munich police protocol from the early part of the 20th century, a 22-year-old man called Joseph told the police: 'I spent the whole night with him.' Another, Michael, who was 18, told them: 'I had been unemployed for months, and my mother and my brother were always hungry, so, at his request, I accompanied the man to his home.' Another, a boy called Franz, said: 'He asked me if I'd like to stay with him and he told me his name was Adolf Hitler.' Police reports from Munich after the First World War also suggest that Hitler was pursued by police because of his sexual orientation. According to Erich Ebermeier, a lawyer and writer who viewed Hitler's military files years later: 'Despite his bravery towards the enemy, because of his homosexual activity he lost out on a promotion to non-commissioned officer.' Hitler's service notes read that as a result of the love affair there was reluctance among senior officers to promote him. Years later, yet before Hitler became infamous, one of his fellow soldiers, Hans Mend, wrote in his memoirs: 'At night, Hitler lay with Schmidl, his male whore.' Schmidl, otherwise known as Ernst Schmidt, and Hitler were 'inseparable lovers' for five years, according to Machtan. In 1915, the young Hitler was a dispatch rider at the front in France. He refers to scores of historical documents to support his thesis. Röhm, who was also gay, was murdered as a result, according to Machtan, a history teacher at Bremen University. The respected German historian Lothar Machtan even claims in his book that Hitler ordered the deaths of several high-ranking Nazis to prevent the secret of his homosexuality from surfacing.Įrnst Röhm, the leader of Hitler's Sturm Abteilung or Storm Troopers, tried to blackmail Hitler by threatening to reveal his sexuality.