LGBTQI+ Persecution during the Holocaust

Gives voice to the experiences of LGBTQ+ persons prior to, during, and after the Holocaust, showing how the Nazi regime instituted a violent, oppressive, and murderous attack on LGBTQ+ life, culture, and identity.

Hitler and the Nazis’ reign of power had dire and long-lasting consequences for LGBTQ+ persons in Germany, Europe, and arguably the world. This survey of key topics and themes within the greater landscape of the Holocaust and genocide studies helps identify how deep-seated prejudices against LGBTQ+ persons evolved into eliminationist ideology under the Nazis. Entries consider the lives of the persecuted and the persecutors alongside examinations of the attitudes and ideas that shaped their present and prejudices; in short, how the German society at large came to condone, and at times participate in, the forceful arrest and disappearance of thousands of their fellow citizens. Considering also the resistance movement, profiles of key individuals tell the story of those who resisted the Nazi assault on LGBTQ+ persons. A chronology of key events, perspective essays, and primary sources further help shed light on the resilience and resistance of the community and the evolution of their persecution under the Nazis.