The Nazi regime harassed and targeted gay men and lesbians by banning their organizations, shuttering their presses, and raiding and closing their meeting places. For gay men, this harrassment worsened over the course of the 1930s, eventually turning into brutal persecution. Beginning in 1935, the Nazi regime used a revised version of Paragraph 175 to arrest large numbers of men accused of having sexual relations with other men. Some of these men were sent to concentration camps as “homosexual” (“homosexuell”) offenders. The Nazi regime’s actions effectively destroyed the networks and communities that gay men and lesbians had established before the Nazis came to power.
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![A waiter from Düsseldorf who was arrested by the Gestapo for allegedly having sexual relations with other men. Düesseldorf, Germany, 1938. [RW 58-61940]
The Nazi regime considered homosexuality a moral vice that threatened the current and future strength of the German people. They carried out a campaign against male homosexuality that included shutting down gay and lesbian meeting places and arresting men under Paragraph 175, the statute of the German criminal code that banned sexual relations between men.](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/df606ccb-213b-4c8b-b902-760bc95d3b7e.jpg)
