Thread by @marinamaral2

WALTER DEGEN was born in Mörchingen. He was registered both as a homosexual and a German political prisoner.

In Auschwitz, prisoners of German nationality designated by a pink triangle were arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code as “asocial parasites”.

Paragraph 175 made homosexual acts between males a crime. The Nazis arrested an estimated 100,000 homosexual men, 50,000 of whom were imprisoned.

READ MORE: facesofauschwitz.com/gallery/walter…

@FacesAuschwitz

According to the current state of knowledge, at least 77 prisoners of Auschwitz were persecuted for their homosexuality, of which at least 43 died. Homosexuals were among the most abused groups in the camps.

As was true with other prisoner categories, some homosexuals were also victims of cruel medical experiments, including castration.

At Buchenwald concentration camp, SS physician Dr. Carl Vaernet performed operations designed to convert men to heterosexuals: the surgical insertion of a capsule which released the male hormone testosterone.

The vast majority of homosexual victims were males; lesbians were not subjected to systematic persecution. While lesbian bars were closed, few women are believed to have been arrested. Paragraph 175 did not mention female homosexuality.

After the war, homosexual prisoners were not acknowledged as victims of Nazi persecution, and reparations were refused. Under the Allied Military Government of Germany, some were forced to serve out their terms of imprisonment, regardless of the time spent in concentration camps.

In May 1942 Walter Degen was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. It is not known if he survived.

The 1935 version of Paragraph 175 remained in effect in the Federal Republic (West Germany) until 1969, so that well after liberation, homosexuals continued to fear arrest and incarceration.