GERMAN SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH INTO SEXUALITY
Response to the failure of the German Federal Government's attempt to rehabilitate homosexual victims of Nazi justice

In January 2002 the German Federal Ministry of Justice produced the draft of a "Law to Amend the Law on the Quashing of Unjust National Socialist Verdicts in Penal Practice." This has subsequently been submitted to the lower house of the German parliament (Bundestag). The intent of the draft is to quash the Nazi verdicts against deserters from the armed services, and against homosexuals. Alongside the sentences passed by courts martial, the draft categorizes as unjust the verdicts handed down by criminal courts in cases of paragraph 175 of the criminal code (consensual sex acts between adult men) and paragraph 175 a 4 (male prostitution).

Representatives of the ruling coalition proclaimed the draft to be a remarkable political triumph even before the parliamentary debates began. For Coalition 90 and the Greens, it is "a great breakthrough" and a "worthy resolution of the rehabilitation question" (in the words of Volker Beck). And the Social Democrats declared dramatically: "We want to give back their honor to these people who are still outsiders even today"(Alfred Hartenbach).

Even if one cannot actually restore honor, even if the barren text of the draft is anything but an honorable resolution, nonetheless such a law would at least provide some satisfaction to the victims of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. They would indeed be rehabilitated. After passage of the bill into law they would be able to live in the certain knowledge that their sentences had been an injustice. But no more than that. And even that would only apply to the few, for most men sentenced for homosexual acts under the National Socialists are no longer alive. The majority of them have already died without rehabilitation.

There is another aspect that makes this draft law a political monstrosity: It annuls unjust verdicts and at the same time confirms them. It does this by characterizing as injustice the verdicts based on Paragraphs 175 and 175a under the National Socialists, but not those that were handed down between 1949 and 1969 under the Federal Republic. During the latter period some 40,000 men were convicted in the Federal Republic of homosexual acts, specifically on the basis of the disgraceful, toughened version of the law introduced by the Nazis in 1935.

To put it plainly: What was an injustice under the National Socialists continued to be regarded as justice in the Federal Republic. And furthermore that means that the damage to body and mind, health and freedom, that those subjected to these verdicts in the Federal Republic suffered, is not acknowledged as such. This dual application of the law is going to be very difficult to explain either to those homosexual men convicted under the Federal Republic or to anyone else.

Yet this is not the only contradiction. The draft law completely excludes questions of compensation. These ought to be codified in a separate ordinance alongside the law covering Nazi injustice. There is, however, no intention of doing that, which puts the supporters of the legal initiative on the spot when they have to offer an explanation.

"Those affected are not concerned about money. They want to be able to live in dignity from now on," claims Alfred Hartenbach. Rehabilitation has been deliberately "unhitched from compensation." According to Volker Beck, the compensation of "forgotten victim groups" is under discussion. Yet this euphemistic comment about the so-called forgotten victim groups merely conceals what everyone involved in the discussions already knows. All previous rulings about compensation have turned out to be farcical:

-- The 1953 Federal Compensation Law did not even recognize those men convicted under paragraphs 175 or 175a during the Nazi period as having been persecuted by the regime.

--According to the General Law on the Consequences of War (AKG) of 1957, they could theoretically advance claims up till December 31st, 1959. In practical terms only a few took advantage of this, because the application "outed" the applicant as a homosexual, who then stood in danger of renewed prosecution from the law. Altogether a total of a mere 14 homosexual victims of the Nazis submitted applications in time.

--According to the hardship guidelines of 1988, the applicant had not only to prove the validity of the damage caused by Nazi injustice in order to receive compensation, but also had to experience financial distress (namely, single men might not earn a monthly wage of more than DM 1,704, nor a married couple more than DM 2,412). In the end, a total of 21 applications were submitted, of which 11 were rejected, and 10 adopted positively.

It is not that the homosexual victims of National Socialism have been "forgotten." Yet the kinds of individual compensation hitherto possible under the law are scandalous--as the above examples make clear. To date fewer than 50 men have received individual compensation.

It seems to us extremely urgent to expand the planned law with regulations that take account of the results of a critical assessment of the current practice of individual compensation, and at the same time put into place generally applicable conditions for collective compensation.

The absence of collective rehabilitation and compensation for homosexual victims is a denial of justice, if only because such concessions have already been made to other victim groups. One possibility of closing this gap would be to set up a publicly funded foundation, which would have thetas of documenting the defamation, persecution and elimination of homosexuals under National Socialism as well as in the Federal Republic. It would also sponsor projects on the further political emancipation of homosexual men and women as a memorial to past injustice.

Signed:

The Executive Committee of the German Society for Research Into Sexuality

Professor Hertha Richter-Appelt, University of Hamburg Professor Martin Dannecker, University of Hamburg Dr. Andreas Hill, University of Hamburg Dr. Ulrike Brandenburg, Technical University Aachen Dr. Günter Grau, University of Bremen

April 2002