27/01/2025
Whilst it is right that we remember the 6 million Jewish men, women and children lost during the Holocaust, it is also important to focus on all who were persecuted throughout this dark period of our history.
4.5 million Soviet civilians were murdered, as were 3.3 million Soviet POWs, 1.8 million Poles, more than 310,000 Serbs, 270,000 Disabled people, 250,000–500,000 Romani, 80,000 Freemasons, 20,000–25,000 Slovenes and 5,000–15,000 homos*xuals, amongst others.
After liberation, survivors were freed and provided compensation for their losses.
This was not the case for gay men. Theirs is a very different story, and I believe important, especially in our current climate, that this is told.
During the Holocaust, homos*xual men were persecuted, as the N**i regime viewed male homos*xuality as fundamentally at odds with their ideology.
The N**is characterised gay men as weak and effeminate, suggesting they were incapable of defending the German nation.
Additionally, homos*xuals were seen as a threat to the German birthrate, as they were less likely to father children.
The regime propagated the belief that "inferior races" were outpacing Aryans in reproduction, leading them to consider anything that hindered Germany's reproductive capacity as a racial threat.
There was even a belief among N**is that homos*xuality could be contagious.
By 1936, Heinrich Himmler spearheaded initiatives aimed at the systematic persecution of gay men through the enforcement of existing laws and the introduction of new anti-homos*xual legislation.
It is estimated that over one million gay individuals were targeted during this period, with at least 100,000 arrested and around 50,000 convicted and imprisoned.
Many others were committed to state-run psychiatric facilities, while hundreds of gay men across N**i-occupied Europe underwent court-ordered chemical castration.
Although estimates suggest that between 5,000 and 15,000 gay men were sent to concentration camps, the exact number who were murdered remains unclear.
According to Austrian survivor Heinz Heger, gay men faced a higher mortality rate than other smaller victim groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and political dissidents.
In concentration camps, gay men were marked with a pink triangle on their uniforms, a symbol of their oppression, alongside men convicted of other s*xual offenses.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum notes that while the N**i regime did not aim to exterminate all homos*xuals, their active persecution sought to instill fear and enforce s*xual and social conformity among German homos*xuals, resulting in thousands of deaths and devastating the lives of many others.
After the war, many of those who survived the concentration camps continued to face persecution in postwar Germany.
Survivors were often prosecuted under Paragraph 175, which criminalized "lewdness between men," with their time in concentration camps counted against their sentences. This treatment starkly contrasted with that received by other Holocaust survivors, who were provided compensation for their losses.
If you’ve read this far, you may recognise the playbook that is currently being used by the Leader of the so-called free-world.
When we say “Never Again” on this 80th anniversary, should we also say, what are we doing to speak up, take action against the inhumanity currently being enacted in the United States?
Should those who fought to free us from the perils of N**ism, have their country run by a dictator?
No major news outlet is keeping up with the daily abuses against minorities, and those who do speak up are gaslit and told that they are over-reacting.
Is this what happened in Germany all those years ago? At what point do we address this very real threat to democracy and to humanity?
*xualPersecution **iGermany
