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Gays in Nazi Germany Fact Sheet

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Gays in Nazi Germany Fact Sheet

A visitors peeks into the window of the just-inaugurated memorial to homosexual victims of the Nazis on May 27, 2008 in Berlin, Germany.

© Sean Gallup/Getty Images
  • Nazi Germany convicted some 50,000 gays and lesbians as criminals under Paragraph 175 of the Reich Criminal Code.

  • The Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion was created in 1936.

  • Persons convicted under Paragraph 175 were sent to concentration camps, marked by a pink triangle.

  • Approximately 10,000 to 15,000 gay men were deported to concentration camps. Few survived.

  • The law criminalizing homosexuality in Germany was not removed until 1969.

  • There were 50,000 convictions under the legislation after World War II

  • In 2002, the German parliament issue a formal pardon for homosexuals convicted under the Nazis.

  • On May 27, 2008, a memorial recognizing the gay and lesbian victim of persecution and death at the hands of the Nazi's was inaugurated. (read more)

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