Gay Holocaust

The purpose of this guide is present English language resources not only about the Gay Holocaust itself, but also about the situation of Germany and the homosexuals before the Nazis. This resource guide was originally created by Lucia Cedeira in 2003 and updated in 2021 by April Sheppard. Please contact the RRT Roundtable to report broken links or to suggest new resources. 


Paragraph 175

Europe and Germany Before and During the Nazis

Magnus Hirschfeld

Homosexuality in Germany

The Nazis and Their Ideology

The Gay Holocaust

Biographies

Fiction

Films and Movies

Online Resources

Revisionism

Recommended Databases

Recommended Subject Headings


 

Below is the text of the Paragraph 175, the sodomy provision of the German penal code that condemned homosexual practices between men during the Nazi Government in Germany and some occupied countries: 

§ 175

  1. A male who indulges in criminally indecent activities with another male or who allows himself to participate in such activities will be punished with jail.
  2. If one of the participants is under the age of twenty-one, and if the crime has not been grave, the court may dispense with the jail sentence.        
    175(a): A jail sentence of up to ten years or, if mitigating circumstances can be established, a jail sentence of no less than three years will be imposed on:
           
    1. any male who by force or by threat of violence and danger to life and limb compels another man to indulge in criminally indecent activities, or allows himself to participate in such activities;
    2. any male who forces another male to indulge with him in criminally indecent activities by using the subordinate position of the other man, whether it be at work or elsewhere, or who allows himself to participate in such activities;
    3. any male who indulges professionally and for profit in criminally indecent activities with other males, or allows himself to be used for such activities or who offers himself for same.
  3. 175(b): Criminally indecent activities by males with animals are to be punished by jail; in addition, the court may deprive the subject of his civil rights.
           

The text of Paragraph 175, with amendments as issued on January 28, 1935. Richard Plant, The Pink Triangle, New York: Holt, 1986, p. 206.


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Europe and Germany Before and During the Nazis

General works about the situation of Germany and Europe at a social level, especially to issues related to sexuality.
 

Abrams, Lynn and Elizabeth Harvey. Gender Relations in German history : Power, Agency and Experience from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge, 2020. 

Becker, Howard. German Youth: Bond or Free. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964. 

Bleuel, Hans Peter. Sex and Society in Nazi Germany. New York: Lippincott, 1973.

Cornwall, Mark. The Devil's Wall : The Nationalist Youth Mission of Heinz Rutha. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. 

Dickinson, Edward Ross. "Policing Sex in Germany, 1882-1982: A Preliminary Statistical Analysis." Journal of the History of Sexuality 16, no. 2 (2007): 204-250.

Edsall, Nicholas C. Toward Stonewall: Homosexuality and Society in the Modern Western World. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. 

Gellately, Robert, and Nathan Stoltzfus. Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Hartshorne, E.Y. German Youth and the Nazi Dream of Victory. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1941.

Herzog, Dagmar. Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 

Hodann, Max. Sex Life in Europe. New York: Julian Press, 1932.

Leck, Ralph M. Vita Sexualis: Karl Ulrichs and the Origins of Sexual Science. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016. 

Lybeck, Marti M. Desiring Emancipation : New Women and Homosexuality in Germany, 1890-1933. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2014. 

Mosse, George L. Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in Modern Europe. New York: Howard Fertig, 1985.

Oosterhuis, Harry, and Hubert Kennedy, eds. Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement, and Male Bonding before Hitler's Rise. New York: The Haworth Press, 1991.

Oosterhuis, Harry. "Medicine, Male Bonding and Homosexuality in Nazi Germany." Journal of Contemporary History 32:2 (1997): 187-205.

Prickett, David James. "Defining Identity Via Homosexual Spaces: Locating the Male Homosexual in Weimar Berlin." Women in German Yearbook 21, no. 1 (2005): 134-162.

Schlagdenhauffen, Regis; Le Gac, Julie; & Virgili, Fabrice. Queer in Europe During the Second World War. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 2018. 

Spector, Scott. Violent Sensations : Sex, Crime, and Utopia in Vienna and Berlin, 1860-1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016. 

Sutton, Katie. Sex Between Body and Mind : Psychoanalysis and Sexology in the German-Speaking World, 1890s-1930s. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019. 

Sutton, Katie. The Masculine Woman in Weimar German. New York: Berghahn Books, 2011.

Tamagne, Florence. History of Homosexuality in Europe, Berlin, London, Paris 1919-1939. New York: Algora, 2007. 

Tobin, Robert D. Peripheral Desires : The German Discovery of Sex. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. 

Ulrichs, Karl Heinrich. The Riddle of "Man-Manly" Love: The Pioneering Work on Male Homosexuality. Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1994.

Verdins, Karlis. Queer Stories of Europe. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016. 

Waite, Robert G. "Teenage Sexuality in Nazi Germany." Journal of the History of Sexuality 8:3 (1998): 434-476.


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Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld was an important figure on the study of sexuality. He founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sex Research) in 1919. In 1933, the Nazis razed the Institute, burning all its books and documents in the streets. Here we include resources about him and his main works.
 

Dose, Ralf. Magnus Hirschfeld :The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2014. 

Hirschfeld, Magnus. "Autobiographical Sketch." In Encyclopedia Sexualis, edited by Victor Robinson. New York: Dingwell-Rock, 1936. 

_____. The Homosexuality of Men and Women. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000 (1914). 

_____. Men and Women: The World Journey of a Sexologist. New York: G.P. Putman's Sons, 1935.

_____. Racism. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1973 (1938).

_____. Sex in Human Relationships. New York. AMS Press, 1975 (1935).

_____. The Sexual History of the World War. Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2006 (1934).

_____. Transvestites : The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003 (1910). 

Mancini, Elena. Magnus Hirschfeld and the Quest for Sexual Freedom : A History of the First International Sexual Freedom Movement. New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2010.

Porter, Jack Nusan.  "The Jewish Homosexual." In The Jew as Outsider: Historical and Contemporary Essays, 139-152. Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1981.

Porter, Jack Nusan. “Magnus Hirschfeld.” In Encyclopedia Judaica, Decennial Yearbook, 1973-1983. Jerusalem, 1982.

Steakley, James. The Writings of Magnus Hirschfeld: A Bibliography. Toronto: Canadian Gay Archives, 1985. 

Taylor, Michael T., Annette F. Timm, and Rainer Herrn. Not Straight from Germany : Sexual Publics and Sexual Citizenship Since Magnus Hirschfeld. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2017.

Wolff, Charlotte. Magnus Hirschfeld. A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology. London: Quartet Books, 1986.
 

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Homosexuality in Germany

These resources are an introduction to the condition of the gay community in Germany before the Nazis, with especial attention to their organization and visibility.
 

Adam, Barry D. The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement. Rev. ed, Social Movements Past and Present. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Beachy, Robert. Gay Berlin : Birthplace of a Modern Identity. New York: Knopf, 2014. 

Crouthamel, Jason. An Intimate History of the Front : Masculinity, Sexuality, and German Soldiers in the First World War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 

Herrn, Rainer and Christian N. Page. 100 Years of the Gay Rights Movement in Germany. New York: Goethe-Institut New York, 1997.

Herzog, Dagmar. Sexuality and German Fascism. New York: Oxford Berghahn Books, 2005. 

Katz, Jonathan, ed. Documents of the Homosexual Rights Movements in Germany. 1836-1927. New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Lauritsen, John and David Thorstad. The Early Homosexual Rights Movement (1864-1935). New York: Time Change Press, 1974.

Lesbianism and Feminism in Germany 1895-1910. New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Marhoefer, Laurie. Sex and the Weimar Republic : German Homosexual Emancipation and the Rise of the Nazis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015. 

Snyder, David R. Sex Crimes Under the Wehrmacht. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2007. 

Steakley, James D. The Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Germany. New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Vendrell, Javier S. The Seduction of Youth : Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. 

Wackerfuss, Andrew. Stormtrooper families: Homosexuality and Community in the Early Nazi Movement. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2015. 

Whisnant, Clayton J. Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880-1945. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2016. 


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The Nazis and Their Ideology

Here we present introductory resources about the main figures on the Nazi party, the reasons for their interest on homosexuals, and their extermination.

Crouthamel, Jason. "Homosexuality and Comradeship: Destabilizing the Hegemonic Masculine Ideal in Nazi Germany." Central European History 51.3 (2018): 419-39. 

Elman, R.A. "Triangles and Tribulations: The Politics of Nazi Symbols." Journal of Homosexuality 30:3 (1996), 1-11.

Ettelson, Todd Richard. “The Nazi ‘New Man’: Embodying Masculinity and Regulating Sexuality in the SA and SS, 1930-1939.” PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2002. 

Fest, Joachim C. The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970.

Gallo, Max. The Night of the Long Knives. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.

Giles, Geoffrey J. "Legislating Homophobia in the Third Reich: The Radicalization of Prosecution Against Homosexuality by the Legal Profession." German History 23.3 (2005): 339-54.

_____.  "The Denial of Homosexuality: Same-Sex Incidents in Himmler's SS and Police." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11, no. 1/2 (2002): 256-290.

_____.  "The most unkindest cut of all: castration, homosexuality, and Nazi justice." Journal of Contemporary History 27:1 (1992): 41-61.

_____. Why Bother About Homosexuals? : Homophobia and Sexual Politics in Nazi Germany. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2001. https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20050726-giles.pdf 

Grau, Günter. "Final Solution of the Homosexual Question? The Antihomosexual Policies of the Nazis and the Social Consequences for Homosexual Men." In The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck, 338-344. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Haeberle, Erwin J. "'Stigmata of Degeneration' Prison Markings in Nazi Concentration Camps". Journal of Homosexuality 6:1-2 (1980-81): 135-39.

_____. "Swastika, Pink Triangle and Yellow Star: The Destruction of Sexology and the Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany." Journal of Sex Research 17:3 (1981): 270-87.

Hancock, E. ""Only the Real, the True, the Masculine Held its Value": Ernst Röhm, Masculinity, and Male Homosexuality." Journal of the History of Sexuality 8, no. 4 (1998): 616-641.

Heineman, Elizabeth D. "Sexuality and Nazism: The Doubly Unspeakable?." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11:1-2 (2002): 22-68.

Herzog, Dagmar. "Hubris and Hypocrisy, Incitement and Disavowal: Sexuality and German Fascism." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11:1-2 (2002): 3-21.

Huneke, Samuel Clowes. "Heterogeneous Persecution: Lesbianism and the Nazi State." Central European History 54, no. 2 (2021): 297-325.

Kersten, Felix. "Homosexuals." In The Kersten Memoirs, 1940-1945. New York: MacMillan Company, 1957.

Koch, H.W. The Hitler Youth: Origins and Development, 1922-1945. New York: Stein and Day, 1976.

Micheler, Stefan. "Homophobic Propaganda and the Denunciation of Same-Sex-Desiring Men under National Socialism." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11:1-2 (2002): 95-130.

Mosse, George L. Toward the Final Solution. New York: Howard Fertig, 1978.

Reitlinger, Gerald. The SS: Alibi of a Nation 1922-45. New York: Viking, 1968.

Rowse, A.L. "From Ludwig II to Rohm". In Homosexuals in History. New York: MacMillan, 1977.

Schoppman, Claudia. “National Socialist Policies Towards Female Homosexuality.” In Gender Relations in German History: Power, Agency and Experience from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century, ed. Lynn Abrams and Elizabeth Harvey. London: UCL Press, 1996. 


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The Gay Holocaust

These resources cover several aspects of the Gay Holocaust: situation at the concentration camps, relations with other persecuted groups, the resistance, theoretical works about the Holocaust itself, and the persecution of homosexuals.

Adams, Barry D. The Survival of Domination. New York: Elsevier, 1978.

Altman, Linda Jacobs. The Forgotten Victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust in History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2003.

Berembaum, Michael, ed. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York University Press, 1990.

Blumenfeld, Warren J. “History/Hysteria: Parallel Representations of Jews and Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals." In Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trasgender Anthology, edited by Brett Beemyn and Mickey Eliason, 146-162. New York: New York University Press, 1996.

Clark, J. Michael. Pink Triangles and Gay Images. Arlington, Texas: Liberal Arts Press, 1987.

Crompton, Louis. "Gay Genocide from Leviticus to Hitler." In The Gay Academic, edited by Louie Crewe. Palm Springs, CA: ETC Publications, 1978.

Cuerda-Galindo, Esther, Francisco Lopez-Munoz, Matthis Krischel, and Astrid Ley. "Study of Deaths by Suicide of Homosexual Prisoners in Nazi Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp." PloS One 12, no. 4 (2017): 1-10.

Drane, David Scott. The "Other Holocaust": The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Honor’s diss., Bowdoin College, 1989.

Dynes, Wayne R. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990 s.v. "Pink Triangle," by.

_____. Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990 s.v. "Holocaust, Gay," by Warren Johansson and William A.Percy.

Feig, Konnilyn. Hitler's Death Camps. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1981.

_____. "Non-Jewish Victims in the Concentration Camps." In Confronting the Nazi Past: New Debates on the Modern Germany History, edited by Michael Burleigh. London: Collins and Brown, 1996.

Friedlander, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews. Vol.1, The years of Persecution, 1933-1939. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Friedman, Ina R. The Other Victims : First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990.

Gottfried, Ted. Martyrs to Madness : The Victims of the Holocaust. Brookfield, Conn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 2000.

Grau, Günter, Claudia Schoppmann, and Patrick Camiller. Hidden Holocaust? : Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany, 1933-45. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995.

Hackett, David A., ed. The Buchenwald Report. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1995.

Hájková, Anna. "Between Love and Coercion: Queer Desire, Sexual Barter and the Holocaust." German History 39, no. 1 (2021): 112-133.

Hammermeister, Kai. "Inventing History: Toward a Gay Holocaust Literature." The German Quarterly 70, no. 1 (1997): 18-26.

Huneke, Samuel C. “The Duplicity of Tolerance: Lesbian Experiences in Nazi Berlin.” Journal of Contemporary History 54:1 (2017): 30-59.

Jensen, Erik N. "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution." Journal of the History of Sexuality 11:1-2 (2002): 319-349.

Laska, Vera, ed. Women in Resistance and the Holocaust. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1977.

Lautmann, Rudiger. "The Pink Triangle: Homosexuals as 'Enemies of the State.'" In The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck, 345-357. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.

_____.  "The Pink Triangle: The Persecution of Homosexual Males in Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany." Journal of Homosexuality 6:1-2 (1980):141-160.

_____. "Categorization in Concentration Camps as a Collective Fate: A Comparison of Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners." Journal of Homosexuality 19, no. 1 (1990): 67-88.

_____. "Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps Compared with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Political Criminals." In A Mosaic of Victims: Non- Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis, edited by Michael Berembaum. New York: University Press, 1990.

Lenz, Reimar. The Wholesale Murder of Homosexuals in the Third Reich. Los Angeles: Urania Manuscripts, 1979.

Marhoefer, Laurie. "Lesbianism, Transvestitism, and the Nazi State: A Microhistory of a Gestapo Investigation, 1939-1943." The American Historical Review 121, no. 4 (2016): 1167-1195.

Nash, Paul J., and Michael A. Lombardi. The Gay Holocaust: The Dutch and German Experience: The Writings of Reimar Lenz, Ron Tielman, and Adriaan Venema. Jacksonville, Fla.: Urania Manuscripts, 1979.

Percy, William. "Anti-Semitism and Homophobia Linked in Discussion of Holocaust Victims Memorial". Gay Community News, 8-14 March, 1987, 8-9.

Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals. New York: New Republic/Holt, 1986. 

Porter, Jack Nusan, and Erwin J. Haeberle. Sexual Politics in the Third Reich : The Persecution of the Homosexuals During the Holocaust : Essays, Biographies, Bibliographies, Photos, and Charts on Sexology, Homosexuality, Nazism, and Magnus Hirschfeld Plus Essays by Dr. Erwin J. Haeberle on the History of Sexology. 3rd , rev. and enl. ed. Newton, MA: Spencer Press, 2003.

Raphael, Lev. "Deciphering the Gay Holocaust." Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 2, no. 3 (31 July 1995): 16.

Rector, Frank. The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981.

Roll, W. "Homosexual Inmates in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp." Journal of Homosexuality, vol. 31, no. 4, (1996): 1-28.

Schlagdenhauffen, Régis. "Outlawed Desires: Punishing “Homosexuals” in Annexed Alsace (1940-1945)." Clio no. 39 (2014): 78–99.

Setterington, Ken. Branded by the Pink Triangle. Toronto: Second Story Press, 2013.

Shaul, Elisheva. "Homosexuality in the Third Reich." In Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, edited by Israel Gutman. New York: MacMillan.

Steakley, James D. "Anniversary of a Book Burning". The Advocate, 9 June 1983, 18-19, 57.

_____. "Homosexuals and the Third Reich." In Flaunting It: A Decade of Gay Journalism from the Body Politic, edited by Ed Jackson and Stan Persky, 84-90. Vancouver : New Star Books; Toronto : Pink Triangle Press, 1982.

Stumke, Hans-Georg. "The Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany." In Confronting the Nazi Past: New Debates on the Modern Germany History, edited by Michael Burleigh. London: Collins and Brown, 1996.

Teilman, Rob. The Persecution of Homosexuals in the Netherlands During the Second World War. Los Angeles, CA: Urania Manuscripts, 1979.

Venema, Adriaan. The Persecution of Homosexuals by the Nazis. Los Angeles, CA: Urania Manuscripts, 1979.

Wood, Robin. "Gays and the Holocaust : Two Documentaries." In Image and Remembrance : Representation and the Holocaust, edited by Shelley Hornstein and Florence Jacobowitz. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.

Woods, Gregory. "The Pink Triangle." In A History of Gay Literature: The Male Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Wytwycky, Bohdan. The Other Holocaust: Many Circles of Hell: A Brief Account of 9-10 Million Persons Who Died with the 6 Million Jews Under Nazi Fascism. Washington, D.C.: Novak Report on the New Ethnicity, 1980.

Young, Ian. Gay Resistance: Homosexuals in the Anti-Nazi Underground. Toronto: Stubblejumper Press, 1985.

Zoe, Lucinda. "The Black Triangle." Lesbian Herstory Archives Newsletter, June 1991.


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Biographies

This section is dedicated to published memoirs of gay citizens or prisoners under the Nazi Government. Please, remember that for more information on survivors you can always consult the web pages of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and The USC Shoah Foundation.

Baer, Marc D. German, Jew, Muslim, Gay : The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. 

Beck, Gad. An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999.

Burchert, Eve. Reflections : Transgender at 7, Out at 84. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Publishing, 2018.

Cassell, Avery; Kanzler, Diane; & Antoniou, Laura. Resistance : The LGBT Fight Against Fascism in WWII. Dana Point, CA: Stacked Deck Press, 2018. 

Fischer, Erica. Aimee & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Heger, Heinz. The Men With the Pink Triangle : The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1980.

Isherwood, Christopher. Christopher and His Kind. New York: North Point Press, 1996.

Ka-Tzetnik 135633. Atrocity. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1963.

Lemke, Jürgen. "Erich and Karl." In Gay Voices from East Germany, edited by John Borneman, 11-36. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Mosse, George L. Confronting History: A Memoir. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. 

Schoppmann, Claudia. Days of Masquerade: Life Stories of Lesbians During the Third Reich. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.

Seel, Pierre. I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror. New York: Basic Books, 1995.

von Mahlsdorf, Charlotte. I Am My Own Woman: The Outlaw Life of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, Berlin’s Most Distinguished Transvestite. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1995.

von Mahlsdorf, Charlotte. I Am My Own Wife : The True Story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2004. 


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Fiction

These resources are fiction works that are placed during the II World War and have gays as main characters.

Coyle, Harold. The Other Side of the Wire : A Novel. Chicago: Master Wings, 2019. 

Dale, Charles J. In God’s Silence. CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014. 

De Jong, Dola. The Tree and The Vine. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1996.

Dijk, Lutz van. Damned Strong Love: The True Story of Willi G. and Stefan K.: A Novel. New York: Holt, 1995. (PT 2664 .I48 V4713 1995).

Greene, Harlan. The German Officer’s Boy. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005. 

Gundy, Bud and Dave Lara. Butterfly Dream : Based on a True Story. San Francisco: Gundy Publishing, 2013. 

Macor, Claudio. Savage. London: Oberon Books, 2016. 

McPartland, Gail. Code 998 Prisoner. Independently Published, 2018. 

Reed, Lannon D. Behold a Pale Horse: A Novel of Homosexuals in the Nazi Holocaust. San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1985.

Reinhart, Robert C. Walk the Night: A Novel of Gays in the Holocaust. Boston: Alyson Publications, 1994.

Robinson, Lauren. The Boy Who Saw in Colours. Independent Publishing Network, 2020. 

Rousseau, Paul. Dolly Boy. Independently Published, 2018.

Sherman, Martin. Bent. New York: S. French, 1979.

Silva, Linda Kay. Tory's Tuesday. San Diego: Paradigm Publishers, 1992.

Wallace, FK. The Painting. CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2010. 


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Films and Movies

Here you will find movies and documentaries that explain or describe the situation of gays in Germany during the Nazi government.

Boumans, Toni. ...But I Was a Girl: The Story of Frieda Belinfante. Streaming Video. SND Films, 1998. 

Clay, Catrine. Love Story: Berlin 1942. VHS. New York: Women Make Movies, 1997.

Dobbs, Rebecca. Desire: Sexuality in Germany 1910-1945. VHS. New York: Water Bearer Films, [1992].

Epstein, Rob, and Jeffrey Friedman. Paragraph 175. DVD. New York: New Yorker Films, 2002.

Farberbock, Max. Aimee and Jaguar. DVD. New York: Zeitgeist Video, 2001, 1999.

Faure, Christian. A Love to Hide. DVD. Merlin Productions, 2005. 

Gat, Rubi. Dear Fredy. DVD. Israel: Filmhub, 2017. 

Manganelli, Monica. Butterflies in Berlin: Diary of a Soul Split in Two. Streaming Video. Alexandra Films, 2020. 

Mathias, Sean. Bent. DVD. New York: MGM Home Entertainment, 2003.

Jeanrond, Elke, and Joseph Weishaupt. Wir Hatten ein Grosses A am Bein [We Were Marked with a Big A]. VHS. Washington, DC: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1994. In German with English subtitles.

Von Praunheim, Rosa. The Einstein of Sex - Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld. DVD. TLA Releasing, 2002. 


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Online Resources

“Article 6 — Indecency Between Men.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-kits/traveling-exhibitions/nazi-persecution-of-homosexuals/article-6-indecency-between-men. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“Bibliography on Lesbian and Trans Women in Nazi Germany.” Sexuality, Holocaust, Stigma : Taking Stock, 22 Oct. 2017, https://sexualityandholocaust.com/blog/bibliography/.

“Bibliography Sexuality and the Holocaust.” Sexuality, Holocaust, Stigma : Taking Stock, 31 Aug. 2018, https://sexualityandholocaust.com/bibliography-sexuality/.

Dunlap, David W. “Personalizing Nazis’ Homosexual Victims.” The New York Times, 26 June 1995. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/26/us/personalizing-nazis-homosexual-victims.html.

Gay Men under the Nazi Regime. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gay-men-under-the-nazi-regime. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Gays and Lesbians — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/gays-and-lesbians#h169. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | 6 May 1933: Looting of the Institute of Sexology. https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/6-may-1933-looting-of-the-institute-of-sexology/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | Gay People. https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/nazi-persecution/gay-people/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“How LGBTQ Victims Were Erased From Holocaust History.” Time, https://time.com/5953047/lgbtq-holocaust-stories/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Internet History Sourcebooks Project. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/steakley-nazis.asp. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

---. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/naziviews.asp. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

---. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

---. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/para175.asp. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Lesbians and the Third Reich. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lesbians-under-the-nazi-regime. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Mueller, Christine L. “The Other Side of the Pink Triangle: Still a Pink Triangle.” The Wisconsin Light, vol. 7, no. 23, Gale, Nov. 1994, p. 6. Archives of Sexuality and Gender.

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933–1945 — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/traveling-exhibitions/retired-exhibitions/nazi-persecution-of-homosexuals. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“Online Exhibition.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/collections-highlights/do-you-remember-when. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“---.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/special-focus/nazi-persecution-of-homosexuals. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Oral History Interview with Erwin Forley - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504440. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Oral History Interview with Frieda Belinfante - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504443. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Paragraph 175. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/paragraph-175-and-the-nazi-campaign-against-homosexuality. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Robert Biedroń, Nazism’s Pink Hell / Homosexuals. A Separate Category of Prisoners / Categories of Prisoners / History / Auschwitz-Birkenau. http://auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/homosexuals-a-separate-category-of-prisoners/robert-biedron-nazisms-pink-hell/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Schoppmann - 2017 - Denounced as a Lesbian Elli Smula (1914-1943), Wo.Pdf. https://sexualityandholocaust.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/schoppmann_smula.pdf. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

Schoppmann, Claudia. Denounced as a Lesbian: Elli Smula (1914-1943), Working Woman from Berlin. 2017, p. 4.

Search the Archive - Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies. https://fortunoff.library.yale.edu/research/search-the-archive/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“Sexuality, Holocaust, Stigma : Taking Stock.” Sexuality, Holocaust, Stigma : Taking Stock, https://sexualityandholocaust.com/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.

“The Holocaust.” USC Shoah Foundation, https://sfi.usc.edu/collections/holocaust. Accessed 17 Nov. 2021.


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Revisionism

“Revisionism” is the term used to describe works that revise some aspects of the history as we know. In our case, it denying the existence of the Gay Holocaust or by claiming that the Nazi party was actually a homosexual organization. Although there are not many serious research works, we think they should be mentioned. We also offer some resources that contradict the statements on the revisionist works.

Igra, Samuel. Germany’s National Vice. London: Quality Press, Ltd., 1945.

International Committee for the Holocaust Truth. 1996 Reports. Vol. 1-3. Salem, Ore: s.n., 1996.

Lively, Scott. The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party. Keizer, Ore.: Founders Publishing Corp., 1995. (6th December 2003).

Narett, Eugene. "The Hidden History of Nazism." The Wanderer, 8 August 1996.

Spurlin, William J. Lost Intimacies : Rethinking Homosexuality Under National Socialism. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. 

     

Criticizing: The Revisionist Position

Citizens Allied for Civic Action. The Annotated Pink Swastika. (6th December 2003).

Dillon, Christopher. “‘Tolerance Means Weakness’: The Dachau Concentration Camp S. S., Militarism and Masculinity.” Historical Research 86, no. 232 (May 2013): 373–89

Johnson, Hans. "The ‘Pink Nazis’." The Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review 2:3 (1995): 49-50.

Marhoefer, Laurie. “Why the Myth of the ‘Gay Nazi’ Is Back in Circulation.” Slate, Aug. 2018. Slate.com, https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/08/gay-nazi-myth-why-dinesh-dsouzas
-misuse-of-history-is-so-galling.html
.


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Recommended Databases 

LGBTQ+ Specific

Archives of Sexuality & Gender

Topics including LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis. It provides researchers with the documents necessary to delve deep into the Gay Rights Movement with resources that may otherwise go undiscovered. Repositories for this collection include: Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation; Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives; Women's Energy Bank; GLBT Historical Society; National Library of Medicine; among other archives. Published by Gale


Gender: Identity and Social Change

Explore records from men’s and women’s organisations, advice literature and etiquette books to reveal developing gender roles and relations. Gain an insight into changing societal expectations about gender roles through personal diaries and correspondence and explore the life and careers of key figures and pioneers in gender history. Published by: Adam Matthew/SAGE


Gender Studies Database 

This database covers the full spectrum of gender-engaged scholarship inside and outside academia. Essential subjects covered in this resource include gender inequality, masculinity, postfeminism, gender identity and more. Gender Studies Database includes more than 1 million records spanning from 1972 to the present, with limited coverage of journals before 1972. Key titles include Sex Roles, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Sex Research, Gender & Education and Journal of Gender Studies. Published by: EBSCO

Similar databases: GenderWatch (ProQuest), Gender Studies Collection (Gale) 


GenderWatch

GenderWatch enhances gender and women's studies, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) research by providing authoritative perspectives from 1970 to present. This well-established and highly reviewed resource offers over 300 titles, with more than 250 in full-text, from an array of academic, radical, community and independent presses. Researchers and teachers may access more than 219,000 full articles on wide-ranging topics like sexuality, religion, societal roles, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, healthcare, and the workplace. Published by: ProQuest


LGBTQ+ Source (Formerly LGBT Life)

This database provides full-text coverage for the most important literature regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Offering a variety of scholarly, popular and regional resources, it includes full-text for more than 140 journals, more than 160 books and reference materials, magazines and more. Published by: EBSCO 


LGBT Studies in Video

LGBT Studies in Video is a cinematic survey of the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as the cultural and political evolution of the LGBT community. This first-of-its-kind collection features award-winning documentaries, interviews, archival footage, and select feature films exploring LGBT history, gay culture and subcultures, civil rights, marriage equality, LGBT families, AIDS, transgender issues, religious perspectives on homosexuality, global comparative experiences, and other topics. Published by: Alexander Street/ProQuest


LGBT Thought and Culture

LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting the key works and archival documentation of LGBT political and social movements throughout the 20th century and into the present day. The collection contains 150,000 pages of rare archival content, including seminal texts, letters, periodicals, speeches, interviews, and ephemera. Published by: Alexander Street/ProQuest
 

Sex & Sexuality

Sex & Sexuality covers a broad range of topics and is drawn from leading archives around the world. From papers of leading sexologists, to LGBTQI+ personal histories, the collection is an essential resource for the study of human sexuality, its complexities and its history. Published by: Adam Matthew/SAGE

 

General and Related Databases 

JSTOR

This extremely large scholarly journal and ebook database contains resources across multiple subject areas, but is particularly strong in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Contains core scholarly journals from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication, making it a great place for historical research. 


PsycINFO 

This database is the world's largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. Produced by the American Psychological Association, this ever-expanding collection of behavioral and social science research,  dissertations and scholarly literature abstracts offers a broad view of the field.  Its content includes indexing of nearly 2,500 journals, with comprehensive coverage from the 1880s, as well as authored and edited books and book chapters, dissertations, and publications from more the fifty countries. Published by: EBSCO 

Similar database: PsycARTICLES 


Social Science Database

Indexing and full text for hundreds of academic journals, providing extensive coverage across a wide range of social science disciplines including anthropology, communication, criminology, economics, education, political science, psychology, social work, and sociology. Published by: ProQuest 


SocINDEX with Full Text 

This database is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. SocINDEX with Full Text offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. In addition to full- text journals, it contains informative abstracts for core coverage journals dating as far back as 1895. Complete with extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers and other non-periodical content sources, the database also includes searchable cited references. Published by: EBSCO 


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Recommended Subject Headings 

Gay Holocaust
Gay Liberation Movement -- Germany
Gay Men -- Germany
Gay men–Germany–History–20th century
Gay prisoners -- Germany
Gays–Germany–History–20th century
Gays -- Legal Status, Laws, Etc.
Gays -- Nazi persecution
Gender Identity -- Germany
Germany -- History -- 1933-1945
Homosexuality -- Law and legislation
Homosexuality -- Law and legislation -- Germany
Homosexuality -- Germany
Homosexuality, Male -- Germany
Lesbianism -- Germany
Lesbians -- Biography -- Germany
Lesbians -- Germany
Lesbians–Germany–History–20th century
Lesbians -- Nazi persecution
Male homosexuality -- Germany -- History
Sex Role -- Germany
Transgender People - Germany
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives 

 

Updated November 2021

Original version