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Queer victims of National Socialism will be the focus of this article on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2026. Remembering the systematic persecution, disenfranchisement and murder of non-heteronormative people is an essential part of historical reappraisal – and at the same time a political and personal act of visibility. For enlightened adults, especially gay men, this remembrance also means understanding their own history as part of a long line of desire, physicality, lust and repression.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on 27 January 1945. While Jewish victims are rightly at the centre of remembrance, other persecuted groups are often marginalised to this day: political opponents, Sinti and Roma, people with disabilities, those stigmatised as ‘anti-social’ – and people whose sexual desire or gender identity did not conform to the Nazi norm.
This article is dedicated to the history, persecution practices, symbols, aftermath and significance of commemorating queer victims of National Socialism – objectively, in a differentiated manner and consciously from a perspective that does not exclude sexuality, but takes it seriously as part of human existence.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day and its significance
International Holocaust Remembrance Day was officially established by the United Nations in 2005. It serves as a global reminder of the crimes of the Nazi regime and is also intended as a warning for the present and the future. Remembrance is not a static act, but an ongoing process that adapts to new insights, perspectives and social debates.
This day is particularly significant for queer communities because their victim group was not recognised as such for a long time. For decades, there was a lack of differentiated reappraisal of the persecution of non-heterosexual people, both in historical research and in public remembrance. It only became apparent late in the day that sexual self-determination under National Socialism was not only morally condemned, but was to be systematically criminalised and eradicated.
Commemoration here also means naming the gaps: the silence after 1945, the continued prosecution, the long absence of compensation and recognition. International Holocaust Remembrance Day provides a framework for consciously incorporating these aspects.
Queer victims of National Socialism in a historical context
The persecution of queer people under National Socialism was not a random side effect, but ideologically motivated. The regime propagated a strictly standardised image of masculinity, femininity, procreation and the ‘people’s body’. Sexual desire had to be subordinated to this purpose.
Male homosexuality was considered a direct threat to the demographic and military goals of the state. Female same-sex relationships were less systematically persecuted, but socially stigmatised, pathologised and monitored. Gender non-conformity was interpreted as a sign of moral decay.
Queer victims of National Socialism were thus persecuted not for individual acts, but because their mere desire was defined as a danger. Sexuality was politicised, controlled and regulated by force.
§175 and the criminal law basis for persecution
The central instrument of persecution was the tightened §175 of the German Criminal Code. In 1935, it was massively expanded: Even supposed ‘lustful glances,’ fantasies or intimate advances could be punishable. The burden of proof lay de facto with the accused, and denunciation was systematically encouraged.
Between 1933 and 1945, around 100,000 men were recorded for same-sex contacts, and around 50,000 were convicted. Many of them ended up in concentration camps after serving their prison sentences. The judiciary acted as an extension of Nazi sexual policy.
The paragraph remained in force in the Federal Republic of Germany in this form for decades after the war. For many survivors, this meant double persecution: first by the Nazi regime, later by the democratic constitutional state.
Concentration camps, forced labour and sexualised violence
Queer prisoners were subjected to particularly brutal treatment in concentration camps. They were often isolated, had to perform the hardest labour and were subjected to violence by both guards and fellow prisoners. Sexual violence, medical experiments and forced castration were a reality for many of those affected.
The existence of desire was systematically broken. Bodies that were capable of or willing to feel pleasure were considered objects to be disciplined. Sexuality was dehumanised, instrumentalised and destroyed.
For a target group that today openly engages with pleasure, fetishism and physicality, this history is difficult to bear – and at the same time central. It shows how political sexuality always was and still is.
Symbols of persecution and their meaning
A central symbol for queer victims of National Socialism is the so-called ‘pink triangle’. Men who were categorised as homosexual had to wear this badge on their prison uniforms. It made them visible, marked them as particularly ‘deviant’ and exposed them to targeted violence.
After 1945, this symbol remained ambivalent for a long time. For many survivors, it was associated with shame, trauma and continued criminalisation. It was only with the queer emancipation movement of the 1970s that the pink triangle was reinterpreted – from a stigma to a sign of resistance and remembrance.
This reinterpretation is not an aesthetic act, but a political one. It shows that symbols can change their meaning when marginalised groups reclaim their history.
Queer victims of National Socialism and the long silence after 1945
After the end of the Second World War, queer survivors received little recognition. Many were not recognised as victims, received no compensation and continued to be prosecuted. Section 175 remained in force and investigation files continued to be used.
This silence was both institutional and societal. These biographies hardly appeared in families, in the media or in historiography. Sexuality continued to be considered taboo, especially when it did not conform to the norm.
This had a direct impact on the culture of remembrance: memorial sites often did not mention queer victims of National Socialism at all or only marginally. It was only through decades of activism and educational work that this perspective slowly changed.
Late recognition and legal rehabilitation
It was not until the 21st century that a more comprehensive legal rehabilitation took place. Judgments were overturned, compensation funds were set up, and official apologies were issued. These steps were important, but they could not undo the suffering that had been endured.
Recognition here does not mean closure, but responsibility. It obliges us to tell history in a differentiated way and not to marginalise it again.
Remembrance, sexuality and self-determination today
For a gay sex shop like Tom Rocket’s, this topic may seem unusual at first glance. But lust, bodies and desire do not exist in a vacuum. They are always embedded in social power relations, norms and historical experiences.
Remembering the queer victims of National Socialism reminds us that sexual self-determination cannot be taken for granted. That the right to desire, to experiment, to feel pleasure, was hard-won – and can be called into question again at any time.
An open, sex-positive culture is not at odds with remembrance, but is part of it. It starts where repression once began: with the body, with lust, with desire.
Remembrance as part of the queer present
Remembrance is not a backward-looking act. It influences how communities understand themselves today. Anyone familiar with the history of queer victims of National Socialism understands why visibility, safe spaces and sexual freedom remain political issues.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day offers a moment of reflection: on vulnerability, on resistance, on the continuity of exclusion. For queer people, it is also a day to become aware of their own history – beyond parties, fetishes and everyday life.
Memory may be uncomfortable. It may be painful. It may also raise questions about one’s own responsibility today.
Outlook: Why this commemoration remains relevant
Anti-Semitism, queerphobia and authoritarian ideologies are not phenomena of the past. They continue to exist, often in more subtle forms, sometimes openly aggressive. Knowledge of the history of queer victims of National Socialism sharpens our awareness of these developments.
27 January 2026 is therefore not just a date, but an occasion to take a stand: for diversity, for sexual self-determination, for a culture of remembrance that leaves no one out.