At last those who were persecuted and annihilated for their sexual orientation or gender identity will be officially recognized by the German state, the Bundestag president has announced. So On January 27, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, German MPs will place LGBTQ victims “at the center of the commemoration ceremony”, 

Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals; around 50,000 of these were sentenced by civilian courts, 6,400 to 7,000 by military courts, and an unknown number by special courts. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. The death rate of these prisoners has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than those of other prisoner groups. A smaller number of men were sentenced to death or executed at Nazi euthanasia centers. Nazi Germany’s persecution of homosexuals is considered o be the most severe episode in a long history of discrimination and violence targeting sexual minorities.

The end of the War did not signal a safer time for gay men as the notorious Paragraph 175 that criminalized homosexuality was still rigorously enforced even under Allied Occupation. All in all, around 140,000 men were convicted under the law first established in 1871 but NOT REPEALED UNTIL 1971

LGBTQ activists have worked for years to establish an official parliamentary commemoration of Nazi victims who were persecuted for their sexual orientation or gender identity. An extensive petition was put into circulation in 2018.  Even so, this all comes at a time when a memorial for the murdered Jews in Berlin was vandalized earlier this month,  and Berlin Pride was marred by two post-Pride homophobic attacks.