The 30th of January 1933, Germany. Adolf Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany
and the Nazi regime quickly begins to restrict the civil and human rights of the Jews and other
individuals deemed to be "enemies of the state," and opens the first concentration
camp – Dachau – situated near Munich. The Nazis persecute not only Jews and
political prisoners, but also thousands of homosexual men and lesbians whom they
track down thanks to denunciations from the public who refer to them as being “perverse”.
Even though the Nazis are less concerned with lesbians, they investigate and interrogate them
as well because according to Nazi ideology, lesbians are guilty of lowering the Reich's
birth rate and weakening the "master race". A number of them would end up in concentration
camps where they would be beaten, raped and murdered.
During the Weimar Republic, which was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933,
German society experienced complex social, political, and cultural transformations.
Germans not only had greater political and social freedoms, but also publicly challenged gender and
sexual norms. This was especially true in big cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfurt.
Distinct lesbian communities developed around this time. To foster networks and connections,
lesbians founded social clubs and associations. The most famous of which
were the Violetta and Monbijou women’s clubs in Berlin which held informal
gatherings in lesbian bars and nightclubs including the famous Eldorado nightclub.
Meeting places advertised in a new lesbian press that emerged in the mid-1920s and lesbian
journals also contributed to the growth of lesbian networks. While in bigger cities, readers could
purchase these journals at newsstands, throughout Germany, readers could subscribe to them by mail.
Other types of lesbian literature, including novels, also began to appear more frequently.
Public discussions of sexuality had occurred in Germany since the late 19th century. However,
the social atmosphere during the Weimar Republic created more space for these conversations.
There were discussions about same-sex sexuality, commonly called homosexuality at the time.
Physician and sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld as well as others organized
gay and lesbian “friendship leagues”, which also included heterosexual members.
These groups advocated for the decriminalization of sexual relations between men and the repeal
of “Paragraph 175” which from 1871 banned sexual relations between men.
In this endeavor, they found allies on the political left and center.
Hirschfeld and others also sought to educate the public about sexuality. For example, they
promoted Hirschfeld’s ideas that homosexuality is inborn and not a vice or perversion.
Large numbers of Germans were opposed to these public discussions of sex and sexuality.
They viewed such debates as decadent, overly permissive,
and immoral. Many were disturbed by the increased visibility of sex in advertising,
film, and other aspects of daily life. For these Germans, gay and lesbian communities
were one symbol of what they saw as the degeneration of German society.
Various right-wing and centrist political groups blamed others, such as Jews,
Communists, and Americans, for corrupting German culture.
Even before coming to power, many Nazis resented the visibility of gay and lesbian communities.
They condemned homosexuality as a threat to the German people. The Nazi Party officially opposed
any efforts to decriminalize sexual relations between men. They argued that homosexuality
was a destructive vice. Some prominent Nazis, including Alfred Rosenberg and Heinrich Himmler,
were clearly homophobic . Wilhelm Frick, a Nazi member of the Reichstag - the German parliament,
stated in 1927 that “men practicing unnatural lechery between men must be persecuted with
utmost severity. Such vices will lead to the disintegration of the German people.”
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. Röhm was the leader of the SA,
which was a paramilitary organization associated with the Nazi Party,
also known as the Storm Troopers and the Brownshirts, for the color of their uniform.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders rarely spoke publicly about homosexuality, and they rather
focused on such issues as the creation of a Greater German state, the Jews, and the economy.
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933. Soon after, Germany’s
gay and lesbian communities came under pressure and scrutiny from the new regime. For men accused
of homosexuality, this worsened over the course of the 1930s and they faced brutal persecution.
Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime began to harass gay and lesbian communities and individuals by
shutting down and raiding their meeting places and organizations. At first, Nazi actions were
uneven and they rather depended on the priorities of local government and police officials. While
some established gay and lesbian bars were able to remain open in cities like Berlin and
Hamburg until the mid 1930s, underground meeting places remained open even later. These, however,
came under increasing police surveillance. As part of the Nazi regime’s restrictions on the
free press, the government also shuttered gay and lesbian newspapers and journals.
By eliminating gay and lesbian gathering places and presses, the regime made it far
more difficult for lesbians and gay men to connect with each other and the Nazis
effectively dissolved the communities that had developed during the Weimar Republic.
The Nazi German judicial system also introduced castration into legal practice.
As of late 1933, courts could order mandatory castration for certain sexual male 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 for the castration themselves.
Over the course of the 1930s, Nazi actions targeting male homosexuality became even more
systematically oppressive. In 1935, the Nazi regime reformed Paragraph 175. The statute now
criminalized any and all sexual intimacy between men. The Nazis also increased the severity of the
punishment for these crimes. The Nazi revision stipulated that non-consensual and coercive
acts between men could result in a sentence of up to ten years of hard labor in prison.
They instructed prosecutors to argue for harsh sentences in court and the judges often complied.
Eventually, SS leader Heinrich Himmler took the lead in persecuting male homosexuality,
which he called a “public scourge.” In 1936, Himmler created the Reich Central
Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion, This office was part of the Kripo,
which was a Criminal Police, and worked closely the official political police - with the Gestapo.
One of its main responsibilities was to police and track down men
suspected of homosexuality and even though the police were less concerned with lesbians,
they did investigate and interrogate some lesbians as well. According to Nazi ideology,
lesbians were guilty of lowering the Reich's birth rate and weakening the "master race".
However, the Nazi regime never criminalized
sexual relations between women as it saw lesbians, first and foremost, as women.
The Nazis believed that German women had a special task to perform:
motherhood. According to Nazi logic, lesbians were women and should thus be mothers. They
had a responsibility to give birth to racially pure Germans, called “Aryans.”
To encourage Aryan procreation, the Nazis adopted a variety of programs and laws.
One example is the Lebensborn program which encouraged Aryan women to have many children,
even outside of marriage. At the same time, the Nazi regime tried
to prohibit or limit the procreation of other supposedly inferior groups.
In July 1933, a new law mandated sterilization of people with supposedly hereditary disabilities.
Other laws, such as the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, defined who could have sex with whom. It banned
future intermarriages and sexual relations between Jews and people “of German or related blood.”
The Nazis did not create any separate policies
that singled out lesbians as a problem for Aryan procreation.
Their reasoning drew on widespread attitudes about the differences between male and female sexuality.
The Nazis concluded that Aryan lesbians could easily be persuaded or forced to bear children.
During the Nazi regime, lesbians could not continue to live and socialize as they had
during the Weimar Republic. Much of German society saw lesbians as social outsiders,
meaning people who did not fit into the mainstream.
As such, they had a higher risk of being denounced and then targeted by the Nazi regime.
Lesbians responded to these new fears and conditions in different ways. Not
all lesbians made the same decisions. Nor did they all have the same choices.
For example, Aryan lesbians had far more options than Jewish or Romani
lesbians, who—above all—faced persecution for racial reasons.
Aryan lesbians, especially those with financial resources, could
try to hide their sexuality and outwardly conform.
Some broke off contact with their circles of friends or withdrew from the public sphere.
Others moved to new cities or the countryside. Some also entered marriages of convenience.
But there were German lesbians who took the risk of resisting the Nazi state for political
and personal reasons. Some continued to seek out underground meeting places, especially in major
cities. There were lesbians who joined underground anti-Nazi resistance groups or helped hide Jews.
Such was a case of Frieda Belinfante, a half-Jewish lesbian, who was a member of Dutch gay
resistance group called the CKC. She became a good friend of the artist Willem Arondeus, an openly
gay man also active in the Dutch resistance. They both participated in the destruction of
the Amsterdam Population Registry offices in March 1943. The group managed to destroy 800,000
identity cards of Jews and others sought by the Nazis, which was 15% of the records. They also
falsified identity cards and arranged hiding places for those who were sought by the Nazis.
After Belinfante learned of the arrests and executions of the other CKC members,
including Arondeus, for 3 months she disguised herself as a man.
The resistance helped her cross the border to Belgium and France, where the French Underground
helped her make her way to Switzerland. Later she moved to the United States.
Considering that sexual relations between women were not illegal under the Nazi regime,
the reason why some lesbians were arrested and sent to concentration camps was,
that they were arrested as members of other groups such as Jews, Roma,
asocials, political prisoners and professional criminals.
In lesbian prisoners’ paperwork, concentration camp authorities usually listed a racial,
political, social, or criminal reason as the primary cause for their arrest.
In a few cases, the authorities also noted their sexuality.
Such was a case of Henny Schermann, a Jewish lesbian from Germany. She was the first of the
Jewish couple's three children. Her parents separated in 1931 and her mother, Selma,
took over the running of the family shoe shop which was later forced to close due
to anti-Semitic boycotts. In 1938, as one way of identifying Jews, a Nazi ordinance decreed
that "Sara" was to be added in official papers as a middle name for all Jewish women. In early
1940 Henny was arrested in Frankfurt and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women. On
the back of her prisoner photo was written: "Jenny Sara Schermann, born on the 19th of February 1912,
Frankfurt am Main. Unmarried shopgirl in Frankfurt am Main. Licentious lesbian, only visited lesbian
bars. Avoided the name 'Sara.' Stateless Jew." Henny was among a number of Ravensbrück prisoners
selected for murder. She was only 30 years old when she was gassed on the 30th of May 1942 at
the Bernburg killing facility. Henny’s sister Regina as well
as her brother Herbert and their mother Selma perished in the death camps, too.
Sometimes their arrest had little or nothing to do with the fact that they were lesbians.
At other times, their sexuality may have played a role. This was especially the case
regarding arrests prompted by denunciations. Denunciations frequently affected people
considered to be social outsiders. Neighbors, family members,
and friends sometimes disapproved of and thus denounced the women involved to the police.
It is possible they did not realize that sexual relations between women were not illegal.
In some of these cases, the police dismissed the complaints because they had no legal basis.
Yet, denunciations could cause unwanted scrutiny for lesbians. Sometimes a denunciation led the
police to discover criminal offenses. For example, it could reveal ties to a
resistance organization, friendship with Jews, or subversive political behavior.
In those cases, women could be arrested and sent to concentration camps.
To such women belonged Elli Smula and Margarete Rosenberg.
In 1940, based on denunciations from their coworkers, the Gestapo detained and interrogated
Smula and Rosenberg. The coworkers had alleged that the two women had engaged in sexual relations
with other women by taking female colleagues into the apartment, giving them alcoholic drinks and
having sexual relationships with them, with the result that they were unable to turn up
to work the next day. The Gestapo claimed that these sexual relations had interfered with the
women’s work duties at a Berlin tram station and both women were accused of subversion.
They were deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where Elli and
Margarete were registered as political prisoners. However,
a notation of “lesbian” was written in their camp documentation. While Margarete survived the war,
Elli "suddenly died" on the 8th of July 1943. No further explanations were given to Elli’s mother.
Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were imprisoned in concentration camps as “homosexual” offenders.
This group of prisoners was typically required to wear a pink triangle badge sewn onto their
camp uniforms. These badges enabled SS guards to identify the alleged grounds for incarceration.
According to many survivor accounts,
pink triangle male prisoners were among the most abused groups in the camps.
SS guards murdered homosexual prisoners out of cruelty or during sadistic games. It is recorded
that the SS used the pink triangles on the men’s chests as targets to shoot at ‘for practice’
In mid-1942, almost all of the 200 homosexual prisoners at Sachsenhausen were executed.
Sometimes pink triangle prisoners were assigned the most grueling and demanding jobs in the camp
labor system. At camps like Mauthausen and Flossenbürg, it was standard practice to
work homosexual prisoners to death which was then disguised as being of natural causes.
They were often subjected not only to physical but also sexual abuse.
Pink triangle prisoners were raped by camp guards as well as fellow inmates. In addition,
they were beaten and publicly humiliated. Beginning in November 1942, concentration
camp commandants officially had the power to order the forced castration of pink triangle prisoners.
However, women who self-identified or were identified as lesbians did
not wear the pink triangle. Instead, they worethe
badges that corresponded to the official reason for their arrest and internment.
First-hand testimonies, memoirs, and diaries of former prisoners reveal that prisoners had sexual
encounters with each other in concentration camps. Both heterosexual and same-sex relationships took
place in the camps. Sexual encounters ranged from consensual intimacies to prostitution.
The female prisoners were often beaten and they became victims of brutal sexual assault.
A number of them, including lesbians, were even raped.
While some women engaged in sexual relations with their fellow female prisoners,
such relations do not always fit neatly within the category of “lesbianism.” This
is because not all women who engaged in same-sex relations were lesbians.
Some women developed same-sex relationships and later described them as a source of
comfort in the camps. Others even saw them as necessary for survival.
Same-sex relations in the camps could be shocking to other prisoners, who came from a variety of
cultures and backgrounds. In postwar memoirs and testimonies, some camp survivors described
lesbians in the camps as a threat to the safety and well-being of other prisoners. Others saw
same-sex relations as an example of degradation caused by the camp experience. These descriptions
reflect the extent to which lesbians often continued to be treated as outsiders in the camps.
However, being an outsider could also mean death, especially for men.
Fearing guilt-by-association, already prejudiced fellow prisoners shunned
pink triangle inmates who were left isolated and powerless within the prisoner hierarchy.
Homosexual prisoners rarely benefited from solidarity from the other prisoners,
which for many camp inmates provided tools of survival, such as access to food and clothing.
To this day, it remains a research challenge to find
historical sources related to lesbian experiences under the Nazi regime.
In cases where lesbians did not come into direct contact with the regime,
there is little or no paper trail documenting their lives and experiences.
But even in cases when lesbians were arrested and sent to concentration camps,
the records can be hard to find because lesbians
were rarely identified as such in official records from the Nazi era.
In addition, there was no specific law under which lesbians were prosecuted. Thus,
there is not always an obvious place to look for
criminal records pertaining to their arrests and detentions.
Another difficulty is that very few lesbians shared testimonies about their experiences
during this time. This is partially because the topic of sexual relations between women
remained taboo for decades after the Nazi era. Regarding men, homosexuality was decriminalized
in East Germany in 1968 and the same happened in West Germany in 1969.
We must never forget lesbians and gay men who either died or survived
under the Nazi regime and remained marked until the end of their lives.
Their stories and suffering must forever remind us of the dangers of discrimination and racism,
and hatred towards each other as the history often repeats itself.
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