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The aim of the lesson is to shed light on the history of one of the lesser-known victim groups of Auschwitz – men persecuted and sentenced under laws criminalizing homosexuality.
In addition, the Museum has published a podcast about §175 prisoners in Auschwitz, narrated by Dr. Agnieszka Kita from the Memorial Archive.
“The persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich, and especially their deportation to concentration camps, is undoubtedly one of the darkest chapters in the history of national socialism. The repression was primarily aimed at enforcing behaviour desired from a political and ideological point of view by the means of terrorising the society. It involved the tightening of penal regulations against homosexuality and deporting those convicted under paragraph 175 to concentration camps,” reads the introduction to the lesson.
“The lesson is not only about the Auschwitz camp itself. Readers have the opportunity to learn about the broader social and legal context of the persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich and its tragic consequences in the concentration camp system. The lesson discusses, among other things, the position of homosexual men in the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, or the characteristics of their fate in prisons and concentration camps,” said Agnieszka Juskowiak-Sawicka, Head of E-learning at the ICEAH.
Partially preserved archival records include information on at least 77 prisoners in Auschwitz identified as having been imprisoned under §175. However, some prisoners sentenced under this paragraph were registered in the camp under other categories, such as political, asocial, or criminal. German researcher Rainer Hoffschildt, using various sources including German archives, estimated the total number of §175 prisoners in Auschwitz to be at least 136.
Among them, Henry Bock was murdered in a gas chamber upon arrival from Drancy on May 30, 1944, and thus was not registered as an Auschwitz prisoner. Hoffschildt, however, omitted the prisoner Wenzel (Václav) Novak.
“The small number of §175 prisoners in KL Auschwitz was due to the fact that most were sent to camps located within the prewar borders of the Reich. In particular, many were sent to KL Sachsenhausen, where one in six §175 prisoners in the Nazi camp system was likely held,” the lesson states.
Out of the 136 §175 prisoners held in KL Auschwitz, at least 66 were killed. Another 11 perished after being transferred to other camps. It is known that 32 survived, while the fate of 24 remains unknown – they likely did not survive the war. One liberated prisoner, Anton Breuer (no. 62855), died on April 15, 1945, in the Polish Red Cross hospital in Oświęcim.
The vast majority of these prisoners were of German nationality. At least 14 were of Jewish origin from the so-called Old Reich. One prisoner imprisoned under §175 in KL Auschwitz was likely of Polish origin.
“Concentration camps located in German-occupied Polish territory (KL Auschwitz and KL Lublin), unlike those within the Old Reich, played a secondary role in isolating pink triangle prisoners. Although the number of homosexual prisoners was relatively small in the context of the overall number of Auschwitz victims, their fate reminds us of the diverse dimensions of Nazi terror and of our duty to remember all who fell victim to it,” the summary of the lesson concludes.
The lesson is available free of charge on the Museum's website in both English and Polish. The podcast, part of the "On Auschwitz" series, can be found on major podcast platforms and on the Museum’s YouTube channel.