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Inspired by @FacesAuschwitz, a wall-painting of Auschwitz prisoner Walter Degen was created at Bülowstraße in Berlin. I’m sincerely moved by this, and really proud to see Faces of Auschwitz making a difference once again. Thank you! You can read Walter’s story on our website. 
In May 1942 Walter Degen was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp. It is not known if he survived.
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.
In Auschwitz, prisoners of German nationality designated by a pink triangle were arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code as “asocial parasites” for “endangering the morality and purity of the German race”. Paragraph 175 made homosexual acts between males a crime.
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.
