Queer Women and AFAB People During the Holocaust

Women of many ages stand at a barbed wire fence. They are all bundled in winter coats, hats, and gloves. The image is bleak.

“Occasionally I tell a few stories [about the Holocaust] [...], if someone asks. But that rarely happens. Wars, and hence the memories of wars, are owned by the male of the species. And fascism is a decidedly male property, whether you were for or against it. Besides, women have no past, or aren’t supposed to have one. A man can have an interesting past, a woman only an indecent one” – Ruth Klüger

Content warning for sex trafficking, corrective rape, forced pregnancy

Queer people as a whole have been systematically removed from the narrative around the holocaust. This is doubly the case for queer women, who stand on the intersection of two marginalizations that often are erased from the common understanding of historical events. There were queer women all throughout the world fighting in World War 2, and so too were there queer women who were specifically victimized during the holocaust.

Before the Nazis came to power, Berlin was one of the safer places for queer people in Europe. A rich queer culture had developed there, one that embraced open-mindedness and the study of queer lives. There were queer bars, clubs, societies, libraries, and so on. Despite the general atmosphere of safety, however, homosexuality was still illegal under Paragraph 175. It's important to note that Paragraph 175 did not make romantic or sexual relationships between women illegal. Additionally, the legal definitions of "man" and "woman" at the time referred only to the gender assigned at birth. This is where many historical summaries of the lives of queer women in Germany stop, but it is not where history stops.

Cisgender queer women and AFAB people were excluded from Paragraph 175 because they were still seen as “useful” —they could still theoretically give birth. While transgender women were treated with the same general attitude as gay cisgender men, otherwise "acceptable" cisgender queer women and AFAB people—goyische, white, abled—remained untouched for a period during the Nazis' rise to power. These two groups were able to exist not out of kindness but because they were fixable and useful; they hoped that they would produce more Aryan children.

Their "fixable" nature and technical legality did not stop them from being punished; they faced societal ostracization, destruction of their gathering places, and enforced consequences when Nazis came into power. Though very few were sent to concentration camps, their suffering continued at home.

Those sent to concentration camps were not sent under the symbol of the pink triangle as gay men, and AMAB people were, but under the black "asocial" triangle. This makes it difficult for anyone to know the exact number of cisgender queer women and AFAB people in concentration camps. It is known, that likely many of the cisgender queer women and AFAB people had other strikes against them in addition to their queerness, like being a sex worker, Romani, disabled, or Jewish. It is guessed that the number of cisgender queer women and AFAB people who went to concentration camps only because of their sexuality or gender identity was comparatively small.

The different classifications did, however, lead to different treatments. Queer women and AFAB people were often forced to work in the camp brothels in an attempt to "fix" them. There were many cases of corrective rape against these prisoners, often intentionally ending in forced pregnancy so they could "serve their purpose."

This behavior was not confined to concentration camps, either. Any cisgender queer woman or AFAB person faced the same danger at home, and many married men to avoid these atrocities. Some of the more fortunate individuals found queer cisgender men or AMAB people to marry, protecting both parties. Many did not. Those people often married heterosexual men and denied themselves any agency to preserve their safety. Elisabeth Zimmerman said of her experience landing in a marriage:

“Repression, not letting anyone notice [her] true nature, or else [she] would have ended up in a concentration camp.”

It cannot, and should not, be said queer women and AFAB individuals had it better merely because their suffering was less overt. Not only did queer women and AFAB people experience extreme discrimination and fear throughout the entirety of the holocaust, but a queer identity in concentration camps was a danger in and of itself. Many other prisoners feared and/or hated queer people, and a group that was turned against itself was easier to control. There is still outright homophobia and general queerphobia in many discussions around the holocaust. Whether that means the erasure of queer people from the narrative entirely, or the painting of them as dangerous or predatory, which can be the case in some accounts. While every perspective can and should be valued when retelling the horrors of concentration camps and overall experiences during the holocaust, it does make finding a truly safe and affirming space to grieve and heal for queer holocaust survivors to be doubly difficult.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material

Gendered Violence, Memory, and Public History: The American Collective Narrative of the Holocaust - ProQuest. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2023, from https://www.proquest.com/openview/3ef7478c4c01e97b7d9843345d6b89dc/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Gerdes, S. (2015, February 5). What happened to gay women during the Holocaust? Gay Star News. http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/what-happened-gay-women-during-holocaust050215/#gs.dR8B00I

Hájková, A. (2021). Between Love and Coercion: Queer Desire, Sexual Barter and the Holocaust. German History, 39(1), 112–133. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghaa047

Hiding in plain sight | Xtra Magazine. (2006, November 8). https://xtramagazine.com/power/hiding-in-plain-sight-2-20326

Lesbians and the Third Reich. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2023, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lesbians-under-the-nazi-regime

Safier, S. (1992). The History of the Gay Male and Lesbian Experience during World War II. http://www.pink-triangle.org/

Should Lesbian Women Be Included in Holocaust Memorial’s Gay Kissing Video? (2010, March 26). Queerty. https://www.queerty.com/should-lesbian-women-be-included-in-holocaust-memorials-gay-kissing-video-20100326

Smith, T. (2020). Queer In/visibility: Gay Men’s and Lesbian’s Experiences of Persecution in Nazi Germany. Historical Perspectives: Santa Clara University Undergraduate Journal of History. https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=historical-perspectives

Tucker, K. I. (2015, April 16). Life Inside the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp for Women. Slate. https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/04/remembering-the-lesbians-prostitutes-and-resisters-of-ravensbruck-concentration-camp.html