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vent as the police in the persecution of homosexuals. The number of convictionstrebled.➄ The extent and radical nature of persecution was intensified considerablyby the involvement of many state authorities too. The Gestapo, thejudiciary and the criminal investigation department each developed theirown persecution strategies, and pursued these with varying degrees ofzeal. They competed and cooperated with each other. Feedback effectsand synergies were the result, leading to a cumulative spiral of violencewhich worsened further under wartime conditions. The people who sufferedfrom this gradual radicalization were the homosexuals, who were at themercy of the prosecution authorities.The past ten years have seen the emergence of regional research projects.These focus in particular on the practice of persecution and show thatthe persecution of homosexuals can only be grasped and described in itstrue dimensions if one incorporates the fate of the persecuted into theanalysis. One common aspect of nearly all regional studies is that theyinclude stories of the persecuted in their histories of state persecution. Theinclusion of biographical aspects is a valuable contribution – also for the‘culture of remembering’ and the collective memory. The Gay Museum inBerlin has made important contributions here.It should also be added that any memorial site to the persecuted homosexualswill remain abstract, unless it simultaneously reminds people of thepersecuted, their lives and their destinies. The memorial would seemremote if it were not accompanied by awareness-building historiography.The Federal Government has by no means fulfilled all its obligations bybuilding the memorial. It still has a responsibility to found the planned MagnusHirschfeld Foundation, with the aim of continuing and advancing historicalresearch on the persecution of homosexuals in memory of those whowere persecuted. After all, the map of the German Reich and the areasoccupied by the Nazi regime is still dominated by blank areas where therehas been no research into the persecution of homosexuals.We are now in a position to give some approximate figures on the extentof the persecution of homosexual men in Germany. If we project the figuresfor Berlin onto the German Reich as a whole, an estimated 200,000 menwere under suspicion, questioned and intimidated by the police. Over60,000 men were brought before the courts, accused of homosexual actsand sentenced. They were sent to prisons, penitentiaries and judicial labourcamps. As far as we can judge on the basis of research carried out onBerlin, about five per cent of homosexual inmates died during judicialdetention; projected onto the whole of Germany this would mean a total ofabout 3,000 men. They died in the prisons as a result of extreme hardlabour, malnutrition and disease – but also of despair, loneliness, and bullyingby fellow inmates. Many suicides were triggered by the traumatic violationof their privacy and self-respect, by humiliation, the loss of a loved oneand long-term partner, and not least, by the destruction of their individuallives and careers.For about one sixth of all homosexuals sentenced suffered in concentrationcamps, where many of them died. The mortality rate among homosexualswas higher than among other groups of inmates. Approximately 5,000 to10,000 homosexuals were sent to concentration camps; sixty per cent did52