Verbotene Liebe – Queere Opfer der NS-Diktatur is a documentary film which premiered on German television (ZDF) in 2024.
The topic of this film is the LGBT community in Germany during the time when Hitler and the Nazi Party were in power (1933-1945).
Here is some basic information about it:
** Writer and director: Sebastian Scherrer
** Narrator: Jan-Philipp Jarke
** Language: German
** Subtitles: German
** Run time: 45 minutes
The story of the LGBT community in Germany during the time of the Third Reich is told by focusing on three persons whose lives and experiences can be documented to a certain degree.
# 1. Rudolf Brazda (1913-2011)
A homosexual man
# 2. Liddy Bacroff (1908-1943)
A trans person
# 3. Elli Smula (1914-1943)
A lesbian woman
The cast includes the following:
The first group
Investigators
** Jannik Schümann – an actor
Searching for information about and traces of
Rudolf Brazda
** Julia Monroe – a trans activist
Searching for information about and traces of
Liddy Bacroff
** Kerstin Thost – an LGBT activist
Searching for information about and traces of
Elli Smula
The second group
Interviews with historical experts
** Bodie Ashton – a historian – University of Erfurt
** Christian Dirks – a historian
** Anna Hajkova – a historian – Warwick University
** Philipp Osten – a historian
** Ricarda Rogalla – a visitor guide, Ravensbrück Concentration Camp
** Alexander Zinn – a historian
Archive footage is used between the talking heads.
Archive footage is used to illustrate and support the statements made by the talking heads.
Archive footage is used when the narrator is speaking.
Old photographs are also used in many cases.
The first case
Rudolf Brazda (born 1913) is the only one of the three persons whose story is told here who survived the war.
His life is quite well-documented, not only by contemporary documents, but also with some interviews he made after the war (recorded on video).
He lived in a small town in the province where he and his friends were known and tolerated for several years even after the Nazi take over in 1933.
But in 1937, the central government told the local administration that homosexual activity was a violation of the law (paragraph 175) and the law had to be enforced.
Rudolf was arrested and charged with a crime. He was sent to prison. Having served six months in prison, he was deported to Czechoslovakia, because he was a citizen of this country.
He lived in Karlsbad in Sudetenland where he was accepted for a while. But when the Nazis took control of Sudetenland, he was in trouble again.
At first, he was arrested and sent to prison. In 1942, he was sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He managed to survive the hard life in the camp.
After the war, he moved to France where homosexuality was not regarded as a crime. In 2008, when he was an old man, he returned to Germany for a short visit.
He travelled to Berlin where he visited the memorial to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism which had been dedicated one month before.
He died in August 2011, at the age of 98.
The second case
Liddy Bacroff (born 1908) lived in Hamburg in the district of St. Pauli where she was a performer and a sex-worker.
Born as a boy, she felt she was a woman and assumed the name Liddy Bacroff.
In 1936, she was arrested and charged with a violation of the law. A trans person (a man who dressed as a woman) was regarded as a homosexual.
In 1938, she was released from prison, but before long she was arrested again. Voluntary castration was perhaps a way to avoid another round of prison time.
She applied. But the application was denied. She was sent to prison and later to Mauthausen Concentration Camp where she was killed in 1943.
The third case
Elli Smula (born 1914) lived in Berlin where she worked as a tram conductor. She faced two charges: she was late for work and she was regarded as a lesbian.
She could not be charged for being a lesbian, because the relevant law (paragraph 175) did not say anything about lesbian activity.
The Nazis had to find another reason to arrest her. This is why she was charged with being late for work. This was regarded as a crime.
Information about her life and her case is limited. We do not even have a photo of her.
We know she was interrogated and sent to Ravensbrück Concentration Camp which was established for female prisoners. According to a message sent to her mother, she died in this camp in 1943.
After the war
What happened to survivors when World War II ended in 1945?
For most people, the end of the war was a relief and a liberation. Prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were released. Jews and political prisoners were no longer persecuted.
But members of the LGBT community had no reason to celebrate.
The infamous paragraph 175 was still a part of the law. Homosexuals were still persecuted and arrested, although they were no longer killed.
Lesbians were also persecuted, but to a lesser degree, because the odious paragraph 175 did not say anything about lesbian activity.
What do reviewers say about this film?
This question is not easy to answer
This film is listed on IMDb, but there is no rating
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There are no customer reviews
The story of the persecution of the LGBT community during the time when Hitler and the Nazi Party was in power is important. It deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
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. This film is available on the ZDF website until 02 May 2026.
REFERENCES
# 1. Items available online
“Berlin remembers persecuted gays,”
BBC News
27 May 2008
“Gay people in Nazi Germany: how hate triumphs,”
Socialist Worker
17 November 2009
# 2. Film and video
Paragraph 175
A documentary
(2000)
Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate
A documentary
(2023)
Verbotenes Begehren:
Margarethe und Leonie
(2023)
Verbotenes Begehren:
Der Mann mit dem rosa Winkel
(2023)
# 3. Books
The Pink Triangle:
The Nazi War Against Homosexuals
By Richard Plant
(1986 = hardcover)
(1988 = paperback)
The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps
By Heinz Heger
(German version 1972)
(English version 1980)
(Reprinted in 2023)
Queer Identities and Politics in Germany:
A History, 1880-1945
By Clayton J. Whisnant
(2016)
The Story of Sidonie C. - Freud's Famous Case of Female Homosexuality
By Ines Rieder & Kitty Winslet
(2020)
Sigmund Freud and his Patient Margarethe Csonka: A Case of Homosexuality in a Woman in Modern Vienna
By Michal Shapira
(2023)
*****
Rudolf Brazda
(1913-2011)
He was persecuted by the Nazis
He survived prison
He survived the concentration camp
This picture is from 2009
*****
A Stolperstein for Liddy Bacroff
(1908-1943)
The name Heinrich Habitz,
(written with large letters)
was given to her when she was adopted
by the husband of her mother.
She refused to accept this name and
assumed the name Liddy Bagroff
(which is written with smaller letters).
*****
A Stolperstein for Elli Smula
(1914-1943)
She was denounced and arrested in 1940.
She was sent to Ravensbrück
Concentration Camp
where she died
in 1943
*****
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