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not survive the terror. In most cases the police committed people to concentrationcamps after their release from prison – on the basis of the liststhey kept on homosexuals, and the judiciary’s documents on previous convictions.Anyone who was regarded as dangerous or as ‘unwilling toimprove’ was taken into ‘preventive custody’. Only those who seemed ‘incapableof improvement’ and were not deterred by the Nazis’ terror were to be‘eliminated’, i.e. killed. – The persecution of homosexuals was based on ascale of differentiated punitive measures.Although these figures show the extent of persecution, they do not conveyany idea of the horrific dimensions of homosexual persecution. Homosexualswere excluded from society by unprecedented inflammatory propaganda;they were vilified, threatened and persecuted by the state. They had tolive in constant fear of being arrested and punished for their passion andlove. For 60,000 men their love proved to be their undoing. But we shouldnot forget that over three times more people were questioned on suspicionthan were actually sentenced. Questioning by the police alone involvedgrave violations of privacy including contempt, abuse and degradation. Theaccused were threatened with social exclusion, the loss of their social andcareer status, and even their liberty, all because they refused to changetheir way of living and loving.Their friendships and their circles of friends were destroyed and smashed.Persecution generated mistrust, it divided and damaged many relationships.However, persecution also engendered solidarity among the persecuted,clandestine meetings, mutual support and existential assistance –even small, secret social networks. People still dared to have sexual adventuresand to continue love affairs; parties and group outings still took placedespite all the dangers. This deserves to be emphasized.Many homosexuals did not allow circumstances to prevent them fromfinding their own forms of happiness. The Nazis’ public extermination slogansspread fear and terror. The tirades of hatred against homosexualsoften destroyed their self-confidence, but the propaganda also strengthenedtheir resolve to assert themselves in a hostile society. Covert forms ofbehaviour had to be learned. Most people lived a double life: one as part ofNazi society, and a second one in quasi-illegality. Homosexual men andwomen had many things in common when it came to strategies for copingwith difficulties. The issue at stake was nothing less than maintaining theirprivate happiness in a loving relationship.These attempts at self-assertion deserve respect. It is worth beingreminded of them – also in view of the forms of homophobic hostility thatare still virulent and expressed in public. The extremes of the NationalSocialist persecution of homosexuals should not make us lose sight of thetime before and afterwards – or make us concentrate only on Germany. It isa matter of the history of homosexual persecution, but also the history ofhomophobia, which led to a long period of discrimination and repression aswell as persecution. Homophobia has a long tradition and is widespread.For this reason, memorials to the persecution of homosexuals have beenbuilt all over the world, from the ‘Homomonument’ in Amsterdam to the PinkTriangle Memorial in Sydney, Australia.Translated by: Bob Culverhouse54