Homosexuality is a term that is used to describe sexual relations between people of the same gender. In Nazi Germany, homosexual activity was considered to be a threat to the preservation of the German “master race.” Only sexual activity between men and women that could reproduce Germany’s racial stock was considered natural and permissible. Any “indecency” between men, including thoughts, was punishable by up to 10 years in prison or castration.
Tens of thousands of homosexual men from Germany and the annexed territories were charged with homosexuality, and ten thousand or more of them were sent to Nazi concentration camps. In the camps, homosexual prisoners were forced to wear a pink triangle on their prison clothing, and many died from persecution by both guards and other inmates.
