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PersecutionThe following example from the Berlin working-class district ofFriedrichshain 8 shows the means and methods used to persecute womenwhose behaviour deviated from the norm, even if they were not imprisoned.In March 1940, a woman living in Friedrichshain reported two femaleneighbours to the Blockwart, the party representative who was in charge ofwatching over the neighbourhood. He notified the Nazi welfare body, theVolkswohlfahrt, which in turn reported the matter to the Gestapo. His reportsaid that the two female factory workers in question, who lived together,were giving offence, that ‘they sleep in the same bed’, and that ‘the worstthings are being said about what goes on in that apartment.’ The Gestapointerrogated Therese Piek, the women who claimed to have heard the suspicioussounds coming from the apartment beside hers, where HildegardWiederhöft and her co-worker Helene Treike had been living for severalmonths. There was not the slightest doubt, claimed Piek, ‘that both womenhave abnormal inclinations. Their entire appearance clearly indicates thatsomething is wrong with them. I assume that both practice abnormal sexualintercourse.’ But she had not witnessed anything herself.The Blockwart’s wife, when interrogated, made similar statements, mentioningthe fact that Hildegard Wiederhöft’s two small sons were living withher in her one-room apartment. The interviewee felt that this was not compatiblewith the ‘healthy sensibility of the people’. In May 1940, the twoaccused women were interrogated too, and they ultimately admitted to havingslept together several times. The 30-year-old Hildegard Wiederhöft wasrepentant and claimed she had ‘fully normal inclinations’ and only acted‘purely out of curiosity’. She also mentioned that she would soon be movingin with her children’s father. Her 34-year-old partner, on the other hand,admitted being a lesbian. She said she had felt attracted ‘to the same sex’since her early youth, but she refused to identify her previous partners. TheGestapo came to the conclusion that Helene Treike was ‘the male part’. Herpartner, on the other hand, did not leave the impression of belonging solelyto the ‘group of so-called female homos’.The Gestapo regretfully found that the two could not be prosecuted since‘up to now lesbian love has not been punishable’, but the women wereforced to end both their relationship and cohabitation immediately. TheGestapo opened files on the women placing Helene Treike under surveillancewith the intention of taking additional measures if necessary. The survivingdocuments do not indicate whether this ever happened.This example shows how quickly women could come into conflict with thepersecuting authorities if they were informed on. Apart from such cases,lesbian women mostly suffered from the regime’s general policy’s towardwomen – provided they were not subject to persecution for being Jewish orfor being active in the opposition. All ‘Aryan’ women were destined formotherhood and marriage as long as they were not considered ‘geneticallydiseased’. Population growth was of vital importance to the Nazis and theirplans of global domination.The exclusion of women from influential positions and professions, thedissolution and Gleichschaltung 9 of the women’s movement, as well as the62