Thread by @HolocaustMuseum

Karl Gorath was just 26 when his jealous lover denounced him as a gay man. He spent years in the concentration camp system until he was liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. But after liberation, he faced another set of difficulties. 1/5

West Germany used the Nazi version of Paragraph 175, the law criminalizing homosexuality, for decades after the war. Under that law, Karl was arrested again in the 1950s. 2/5

At his trial, Karl realized that he recognized the judge. The judge sentencing him to jail that day was the same man who had sent him to a concentration camp in the 1930s, for the same "crime." 3/5

Karl made several attempts to claim reparations after the war, as many survivors of Nazi persecution did. He was denied. According to officials, he was not eligible because his camp records showed that he was a Paragraph 175 prisoner. 4/5

He became one of the first gay survivors of the concentration camp system to publicly tell his story. He died in 2003 without having received reparations for his suffering under the Nazis. 5/5
#PrideMonth #LGBTHistory