Before 1933, male homosexual acts were illegal in Germany under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code. The law was not consistently enforced, however, and a thriving gay culture existed in major German cities. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the first homosexual movement's infrastructure of clubs, organizations, and publications was shut down. After the Röhm purge in 1934, persecuting homosexuals became a priority of the Nazi police state. A 1935 revision of Paragraph 175 made it easier to bring criminal charges for homosexual acts, leading to a large increase in arrests and convictions. Persecution peaked in the years prior to World War II and was extended to areas annexed by Germany, including Austria, the Czech lands, and Alsace–Lorraine.
Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.
Dachau was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.
Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland; directly on the rail-line between the towns of Jawor (Jauer) and Strzegom (Striegau). Its prisoners were mostly Jews, Poles and Soviet citizens.
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, including subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.
Richard Baer was a German SS officer who, among other assignments, was the commandant of Auschwitz I concentration camp from May 1944 to January 1945, and right after, from February to April 1945, commandant of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Following the war, Baer lived under an assumed name to avoid prosecution but was recognized and arrested in December 1960. He died in detention before he could stand trial.
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners throughout World War II. Prominent prisoners included Joseph Stalin's oldest son, Yakov Dzhugashvili; assassin Herschel Grynszpan; Paul Reynaud, the penultimate prime minister of the French Third Republic; Francisco Largo Caballero, prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War; the wife and children of the crown prince of Bavaria; Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera; and several enemy soldiers and political dissidents.
SS-Totenkopfverbände was the Schutzstaffel (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the Totenkopf was the universal cap badge of the SS, the SS-TV also wore this insignia on the right collar tab to distinguish itself from other SS formations.
Sachsenhausen is a district on the Havel River in the north of the town Oranienburg, 35 kilometres north of Berlin in Germany. As of December 2005 it had a population of 2,735. The district's name means 'Houses of the Saxons'.
Arbeitsdorf ("work-village") was a Nazi concentration camp in Stadt des KdF-Wagens bei Fallersleben 1942.
Breitenau concentration camp was one of the first concentration camps established by the Nazis. It was founded in June 1933 as an addition to the Breitenau Labor and Welfare House, less than six months after the Nazis by a democratic election in Germany became the majority party in the German parliament. It closed in March 1934 and reopened in 1940 where it remained in operation until the end of World War II. In 1984, a memorial was constructed on the site of the former camp.
Berlin-Marzahn Rastplatz was a camp set up for Romani people in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn by Nazi authorities.
Enno Lolling was a Nazi doctor. As a member of the SS, he served as a Lagerarzt at Dachau concentration camp. He later headed up the medical division for all the SS concentration camps. Lolling committed suicide in Flensburg as the war was ending.
The Esterwegen concentration camp near Esterwegen was an early Nazi concentration camp within a series of camps first established in the Emsland district of Germany. It was established in the summer of 1933 as a concentration camp for 2000 so-called political Schutzhäftlinge and was for a time the second largest concentration camp after Dachau. The camp was closed in summer of 1936. Thereafter, until 1945 it was used as a prison camp. Political prisoners and so-called Nacht und Nebel prisoners were also held there. After the war ended, Esterwegen served as a British internment camp, as a prison, and, until 2000, as a depot for the German Army.
Harry Naujoks was a German anti-fascist and communist and survivor of Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Columbia concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin. It was one of the first such institutions established by the regime.
Sonnenburg concentration camp was opened on 3 April 1933 in Sonnenburg in a former prison, on the initiative of the Free State of Prussia Ministry of the Interior and Justice.
Vulkanwerft concentration camp in the Bredow district of Szczecin, also known as the KZ Stettin-Bredow, was one of the early so-called "wild" German Nazi concentration camps set up by the SA, in October 1933. The camp existed only until 11 March 1934, before prisoner transfer, and in spite of its short history, had as many as three commandants including SS-Truppführer Otto Meier, SS-Truppführer Karl Salis, and SS-Truppführer Fritz Pleines. The camp was notorious for the brutality of its guards. The prisoners were kept in the basement of the shipyard buildings.
Augustin Sandtner was a German Communist Party anti-war activist and party officer who served, briefly, as a member of the Prussian parliament ("Landtag"). When the Nazis took power at the start of 1933 he campaigned for several weeks against fascism and war. Following his arrest he survived more than eleven of the twelve Nazi years in state captivity, but was shot dead at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp by Nazi paramilitaries (SS) a few months before the end of the Second World War.
The Osthofen concentration camp was an early Nazi concentration camp in Osthofen, close to Worms, Germany. It was established in March 1933 in a former paper factory. The camp was administered by the People's State of Hesse's Political Police, with guards first drawn from SA and SS, later only SS men. The first prisoners were mostly Communists or Social Democrats, but later Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists and non-political Jews were also sent to the camp.
