Homosexuals were persecuted because they were thought of as weak and the Nazi's didn't believe they could fight in the German army. They were also considered a racial danger because they wouldn't produce children to increase the German birthrate. Police had been told for years to record any men engaged in homosexual activities and these lists of people known as "pink lists" were used to track down individual people. Many people, specifically politicians, would give out names of people they didn't like, spreading rumors of them being homosexual in order to get them put in prison or sent to concentration camps. The Nazi's believed homosexuality was a disease to which the cure was hard work and humiliation. Homosexual inmates in prisons and concentration camps were separated from other inmates and the guards to stop the homosexuality from "spreading". They were often beat and forced to work dangerous jobs. About 40,000 men were sentenced to prisons as homosexuals and about 10,000 were sent to concentration camps. It's not known how many actually died in the concentration camps but some estimate about 60% (6,000). |
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