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imprisoned in Luckau Prison and later sent to various Moorlager (moorcamps). Even though he was released in 1940, Heinz Dörmer was takeninto preventive custody again and interned, only a few weeks later, in SachsenhausenConcentration Camp. He later referred to his time there as ‘Hellon earth’, which he survived only because he was transferred toNeuengamme Concentration Camp.In 1942, the concentration camps were restructured to meet the changedconditions under which the war was being fought. The practice of “re-educating”prisoners through brutal treatment and harassment gave way to theconcerted exploitation of inmates’ labour to support important war industries.One of the companies involved in this was the Messapparatebau armamentscompany – or Messap – which set up a factory in NeuengammeConcentration Camp near Hamburg in 1942 to make time fuses for bombs.Heinz Dörmer was friends with a gay prisoner, Karl Heinz Kitta, whoworked in the office and was responsible for puttingtogether the new labour squad. Dörmer’sfriend got him moved shifted to the factory. Thismove ensured his survival: civilians also workedfor Messap, which meant that the factory washeated in the winter. The workforce alsoreceived regular and – sometimes – bettermeals. Furthermore, the SS guards who operatedthere were not quite as brutal as elsewhere.Shortly after being released after years ofinternment in the camp, Heinz Dörmer beganworking through his own personal memories. Heasked friends who had survived to give him photographs.He traced down people who had disappearedand contacted the families of murderedcomrades. He also tried – in vain – to getthe state to acknowledge the years of sufferinghe had endured. Heinz Dörmer carefully preservedhis memoirs and documents for severaldecades. For a long time, it was ill-advisableeven to mention the wrong the Nazis had doneto homosexuals. Only decades after the liberationdid Heinz Dörmer begin to talk about the Selbstporträt von Heinz Dörmer im Fahrtenhemd des "Ringhorrors he had experienced during his ten years Deutscher Pfadfinder" (Berlin, 11. Mai 1929)of internment. His recollections appeared in Berlin, Schwules Museum, Sammlung Heinz Dörmer1994 in the book Und alles wegen der Jungs.Pfadfinderführer und KZ-Häftling Heinz Dörmer in the series Lebensgeschichtenpublished by Schwules Museum (Gay Museum), Berlin.Karl BlutauIn the past, too little attention has been given to the homosexuals whosought escape from the Gestapo by fleeing abroad. They faced the threatof being reported, denounced and summonsed to appear before theGestapo, and in court, or of being reported by friends and acquaintances154