The Pink List: Nazi Persecution of Gays in the Holocaust

Published November 30, 2008 @ 02:58PM PT

Hitler's grand plans for a "racially pure" Aryan nation saw a variety of social groups brought into the fold of Nazi persecution. As Kicking A Lion highlights, Germany's 1.2 million gay men were prime among the Nazi's targets.

Hitler's racial state ideology branded homosexuals not only as "parasites" and degenerates, but as enemies of the state. In 1935, the Nazi government significantly expanded the criminalization of homosexuality under Paragraph 175. Under the direction of SS head Heinrich Himmler, police drew up "pink lists" and embarked on a vicious crackdown on homosexual men and women. Many were sent to mental hospitals, others were castrated by court order, and thousands perished in the "extermination through work" program in concentration camps.

Heinz Dormer, now a very frail 89 year-old, spent nearly ten years in prisons and concentration camps. In a quivering, barely audible voice he remembers the haunting, agonised cries from "the singing forest", a row of tall poles on which condemned men were hung: "Everyone who was sentenced to death would be lifted up onto the hook. The howling and screaming were inhuman…Beyond human comprehension".

For more information, check out the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's excellent online exhibition, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933 - 1945. The International Gay and Lesbian Association (IGLA) of Europe also has a great page and and list of resources. Matt and Andre Koymasky provide pictures of memorials to gay Holocaust victims.

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It´s a important blog. That´s a very, very terrible and horrible part of Germanys history!

Posted by clanie ... on 11/30/2008 @ 03:43PM PT
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Keep up the good work, Michelle! This is something that many who accept the Holocaust would like to deny.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Posted by Ioan Lightoller on 11/30/2008 @ 08:20PM PT
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this site is for change,rite? is this issue still happening or something?? whats it have to do with anything??? and dont tell me its because they cant marry. get over it.

Posted by Noah Brooks on 12/01/2008 @ 04:57AM PT
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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.