Homosexual Relations between Western Prisoners of War and Civilians in Nazi Germany

Abstract

Analyzes court martial files against western prisoners of war in Nazi Germany, arguing that the German authorities cared little for homosexual acts between prisoners but punished homosexual prisoner-civilian relationships very harshly according to Nazi anti-homosexual legislation (§175 and 175a), especially if they involved young Germans. The perceived character of the prisoner and of his German partner influenced the verdict. The article highlights a Belgian-German relationship leading to harsh penitentiary sentences as well as two death sentences for French POWs involved with minors. It shows also that homosexual relations between prisoners and German men over 21 rarely came before the courts, partly because they were harder to detect than heterosexual relations and partly because the Nazi regime always was much more worried about sex between POWs and German women than between POWs and German men.