Never Forget, Never Again

"One attempt by the Nazis to purify German society was their condemnation of male homosexuals as "socially aberrant." Early in the Nazi regime, male homosexual organizations were banned. In 1934, a special Gestapo division was established to create lists ("pink lists") of homosexuals throughout Germany. In 1936, Heinrich Himmler created a "Reich Central Office for the Combatting of Homosexuality and Abortion." The prosecution of homosexuals reached its peak in the years 1937-1939. The police conducted raids on meeting places, seized address books from arrested men to identify and locate other homosexuals, and set up networks or informers to compile names leading to more arrests.

Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested, and of these, some 50,000 officially-defined homosexuals were sentenced. Most of these men spent time in regular prisons, and an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. Those defined as homosexuals were designated by a pink triangle. We do not know how many of these men died in the camps. (Jews who were homosexuals were killed because they were Jews.)

Lesbians were not subjected to systematic persecution. Few women are believed to have been arrested."

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