Paragraph 175 is
a documentary film about the persecution of homosexual men and lesbian women in
Nazi Germany during the time 1933-1945. Here is some basic information about
this film which premiered in the year 2000:
** Producers and
directors: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
** Writer: Sharon
Wood
** Narrator:
Rupert Everett
** Languages:
English, French, German (see more below)
** Run time: 74
minutes
Seven survivors –
six men and one woman - are interviewed by Klaus Müller, a German historian who
was born in 1959. Here are their names in alphabetical order:
** Annette Eick,
1909-2010
** Gad Beck,
1923-2012
** Albrecht
Becker, 1906-2002
** Heinz Dörmer,
1912-2001
** Heinz F., born
1905
** Karl Gorath,
1912-2003
** Pierre Seel,
1923-2005
The narrator
Rupert Everett speaks English. One of the survivors (Annette Eick) speaks
English, because she escaped to England before the outbreak of World War Two.
And Pierre Seel speaks a bit of French, because he is from Alsace-Lorraine
(Elsass-Lothringen).
But most of the conversation is in German. It seems the
DVD offered by Amazon UK is a German product with German subtitles.
Producers and
directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman are English. It is a shame they did
not make sure that a DVD with English subtitles was released.
Paragraph 175 is a
reference to a German law which makes homosexual activity between men a crime.
The law does not say anything about lesbian activity between women.
The law was
inherited from Prussia and introduced in 1871 by the newly-created German
Empire. In 1935 it was revised and expanded by the Nazi government. In 1949, shortly
after World War Two ended, two German states were established. What happened
with regard to paragraph 175?
** In East Germany,
it was in use until 1968
** In West
Germany, it was in use until 1969
The two states
were united in 1990. Four years later, in 1994, paragraph 175 was finally
completely eliminated from the penal code.
In 2017, the
German state adopted two laws which offered rehabilitation and compensation to
victims of paragraph 175. At that time, of course, most victims of the odious
paragraph were already dead.
In this film, the
focus is on the time 1933-1945 when Hitler and the Nazi Party were in power.
But the film also offers some information about what happened during the time before 1933:
** The German Empire = 1871-1918
** The Weimar Republic = 1918-1933
When we look at
the period before Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power, one name stands out:
the German doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935). The Nazis in Germany had three
reasons to dislike this man:
(1) he was a socialist
(2) he was a Jew
(3) he
was a homosexual
[Please google his name
to find more information about him. Some of this information is in English.]
While Hitler and
the Nazi Party were in power, all the groups they disliked were divided into
different categories. The “enemies of the German state” were forced to carry a
symbol on their clothes to show the category to which they belonged. Homosexuals
were identified by a pink triangle.
What do reviewers
say about this film?
Here are some results:
** 79 per cent =
IMDb
** 78 per cent =
Meta (the audience)
** 85 per cent =
Meta (the critics)
** 83 per cent =
Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 94 per cent =
Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On the US version
of Amazon there are at the moment more than 30 reviews of this product. The average rating is
3.9 stars.
As you can see,
the ratings are quite good. When you look at Meta and Rotten Tomatoes, you can
see that there is a clear difference between the general audience and the
professional critics. The critics think this film is better than the audience,
although both groups are positive.
In this case, I
have to side with the critics. This film covers an important topic that was
ignored and overlooked for a long time. And the topic is covered very well.
All survivors were
quite old when they were interviewed for this film, and they have since passed
away. It was really the last chance. The interviews were done in the eleventh
hour.
I want to go all the
way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
PS # 1. The following
article about the film is available online:
Peter Tatchell,
“Survivors of a
forgotten holocaust,”
The Independent,
12 June 2001
PS # 2. For more
information, see the following books:
The Men with
the Pink Triangle
by Heinz Heger
(published in German in 1972; published in English in 1980)
Heinz Heger is perhaps a pen name for Josef
Kohaut (1915-1994)
The Pink
Triangle: The Nazi War against Homosexuals
by Richard Plant
(1986) (1988)
Branded by the
Pink Triangle
by Ken Setterington
(2013)
[This volume is written for young readers]
PS # 3. For more information, see the following items:
Eldorado:
Everything the Nazis Hate
A documentary film which premiered in 2023
Run time: 92 minutes
Verbotene Liebe:
Queere Opfer der NS-Diktatur
A documentary film which premiered on German television (ZDF) in January 2024. Available on the ZDF website until 02 May 2026
Run time: 45 minutes
*****
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