The Queer Experience Under the Nazi Regime
Faculty Mentor(s) Name(s)
Brian Newsome
Abstract
In recent years, historians have focused increasingly on queer victims of the Holocaust. Building on this scholarship, this study draws on recorded testimony from survivors to explore the queer experience during and after the war. The Nazis censored queer media and revised Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code to forbid the practice of homosexuality between men in Germany and in any land that German forces occupied. The Nazis oppressed lesbians as well, finding ways to incriminate them for other offenses or bribing officers to take advantage of them. Ultimately, queer individuals were sent to concentration camps, where they were persecuted by both the SS and their heterosexual peers. Other prisoners believed homosexuality to be a choice, so they did not believe homosexual victims were oppressed the same way they were. This led to exclusion from prisoner-run communities. Queer prisoners who were sent to concentration camps for other reasons, such as Judaism, often disguised their homosexuality to avoid such treatment. Jewish victims who were unable to hide their homosexuality often were assigned to the most strenuous tasks. Nazi oppression wrecked or ended the lives of tens of thousands of queer people through torture, medical experiments, and the dismantling of their reputations. When the Holocaust ended, the queer survivors were forced to live as ex-convicts, rarely receiving the same compensation or safety net that other victims received. What Hitler and the Nazis did to homosexuals must be discussed to acknowledge and prevent the tyrannical treatment of LGBT+ people in society.
Start Date
27-3-2024 10:10 AM
End Date
27-3-2024 10:18 AM
Location
Arts and Sciences 2-72
The Queer Experience Under the Nazi Regime
Arts and Sciences 2-72
In recent years, historians have focused increasingly on queer victims of the Holocaust. Building on this scholarship, this study draws on recorded testimony from survivors to explore the queer experience during and after the war. The Nazis censored queer media and revised Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code to forbid the practice of homosexuality between men in Germany and in any land that German forces occupied. The Nazis oppressed lesbians as well, finding ways to incriminate them for other offenses or bribing officers to take advantage of them. Ultimately, queer individuals were sent to concentration camps, where they were persecuted by both the SS and their heterosexual peers. Other prisoners believed homosexuality to be a choice, so they did not believe homosexual victims were oppressed the same way they were. This led to exclusion from prisoner-run communities. Queer prisoners who were sent to concentration camps for other reasons, such as Judaism, often disguised their homosexuality to avoid such treatment. Jewish victims who were unable to hide their homosexuality often were assigned to the most strenuous tasks. Nazi oppression wrecked or ended the lives of tens of thousands of queer people through torture, medical experiments, and the dismantling of their reputations. When the Holocaust ended, the queer survivors were forced to live as ex-convicts, rarely receiving the same compensation or safety net that other victims received. What Hitler and the Nazis did to homosexuals must be discussed to acknowledge and prevent the tyrannical treatment of LGBT+ people in society.