Adolf Hitler Pink Triangles

In 1871 paragraph 175 of the German penal code was established. This declared male homosexuality to be illegal throughout the country. Despite this, homosexuality was often still tolerated, especially in larger cities. Berlin in particular had a thriving queer community in the 1920’s, with queer clubs, bars, libraries, and even societies. It has been estimated that there were approximately one million queer men living in Germany by 1933. However, this atmosphere of safety and solidarity did not last forever. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis began their rise to power they enforced paragraph 175 more severely, thus furthering the oppression and persecution of queer men. According to Horst Seferens, spokesman for the memorial at the former Sachsenhausen
This symbol marked them as being a member of what was considered the lowest of the groups. They were assigned the hardest labor, such as quarrying clay and making bricks, and many did not survive the brutal circumstances. In many camps they were kept in separate housing under different treatment. Sachsenhausen isolated pink triangle prisoners in blocks 35 and 11, which were kept separate from the rest of the camp by a wall in order to prevent “homosexuality propagation”. They were only allowed to sleep in their nightshirts, and were to keep their hands visible and outside of their covers so as to prevent
Sharon Kleinbaum, rabbi of the world's largest gay and lesbian synagogue, responded “The Nazis targeted other groups in an attempt to make the world pure for their race. As Jews we have a moral obligation to make sure that kind of hatred and bigotry should never be perpetrated against anyone--straight or gay. I plan to do all I can to stop it." Kleinbaum also stated that “He's a hate monger, and he's using the museum as an excuse to express his homophobia. I'm deeply sad that a rabbi should express such malice. I want to remind him that such hatred was what lead to the Holocaust and that that kind of hatred knows no boundaries. It destroys everything in its path." Roberta Bennett, project chair of a fund raiser for a tribute to the homosexual victims of the holocaust, explained that the holocaust wasn’t something that just affected one group, it affected all of humanity, and that they were not attempting to “promote” homosexuality by researching its history, saying “It's important to remember that they were victims of this nightmare