Persecution of gay men

Stolperstein
© Frank Ahland

The persecution of homosexuals according to paragraph 175 is a dark chapter in German history. About 52,000 men and male youths were sentenced for their homosexuality under National Socialism, at least 10.000 of whom died in concentration camps. The historian Dr. Frank Ahland has now systematically evaluated the prison books of the former police prison in Dortmund for the victims of homosexual persecution. According to this, about 660 men and youths were imprisoned there between 1933 and 1945 because of paragraph 175. 25 prisoners came from today's Unna district.

The historian Ahland had not expected such figures; after all, the prison books had long been considered systematic. The former police prison now houses the Steinwache memorial, which documents the Nazi terror in Dortmund. For Ahland, it proves once again that the victims of paragraph 175 played no role in the reappraisal of Nazi crimes. "We must not forget that paragraph 175, which had been tightened up by the National Socialists, remained in force until 1969," explains the historian. In the official Federal Republic, President Richard von Weizsäcker reminded for the first time of the persecuted gays in his famous speech on the day of liberation. To this day, it is predominantly homosexual scientists who dedicate themselves to researching the subject. The others remain eloquent and silent.

For Dortmund, Dr. Ahland can now trace the persecution practice on the basis of the evaluation of the prison books. A small gay scene has been flourishing in the Westphalian metropolis since the 1920s. In the "Third Reich", their meeting places became the target of undercover investigations. Two officials of the Dortmund police department are particularly ambitious. At night they organize a real gay hunt. The regular service is done during the day, then it comes to arrests, which are released mainly by denunciation. For example, three men from Fröndenberg are arrested.  From 1937, the pressure to persecute also increased considerably in Dortmund. The occasion is a speech by Himmler on German Police Day, in which homosexuals are declared enemies of the state, as it were, who damage the body of the people because they undermine the National Socialist male unions. Consequently, the Nazi state must be protected from them. For the historian Ahland, this is a decisive reason why § 175 must also be regarded as Nazi injustice in the Federal Republic: "The persecution of gays was an original part of the National Socialist system of injustice".

The excesses of the persecution are frighteningly visible in Ahland's list of prisoners. Even minors are not spared. Numerous young people are among the prisoners, the youngest being 14 to 16 years old. Men from today's Unna district are also victims. The prison books contain 25 entries with references to the old communities of Bergkamen, Bönen, Brambauer, Dellwig, Holzwickede, Horstmar, Kamen, Langschede, Lünen, Rünthe, Selm and Unna. The fate of the homosexual prisoners from the Dortmund police prison is largely unknown and offers reason for further investigation. Dr. Ahland fears that "we have to reckon with over 100 concentration camp deaths in Dortmund".

In the death book of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial there is an entry for Stefan Schminghoff, who was born on 20.02.1888 in Brambauer. He was pursued by the Nazis after § 175 and murdered on 19.07.1940 in Sachsenhausen. It is known that a prisoner from Holzwickede survived the concentration camp. He died in the 1980s as an elderly man and was considered a convicted sex offender until his death. It was not until 2002 that the German Bundestag overturned the sentences from the Nazi era and rehabilitated the men. Another 50.000 gays were sentenced in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1994 according to § 175. These sentences were quashed in 2017.