Pride 2024: LGBTQ+ History during the Holocaust, Part Two

For the second part of our Pride 2024 series, we explore the experiences of lesbians under the Third Reich. Unlike gay men, lesbians were not subject to any laws criminalising their relationships. 

During the 1920s, lesbian communities flourished in Germany, and these networks were known as ‘friendship associations’. Bars and nightclubs were vibrant meeting places and print media expanded to include specialised newspapers and journals including Frauenliebe (Women’s Love) and Die Freundin (The Girlfriend). The Nazis’ rise to power unfortunately put an abrupt end to lesbian societies, associations and publications.

Although the Nazis did not have a definitive policy to persecute lesbians, women’s perceived violation of Aryan gender norms caused them to become targets of the Gestapo. A woman’s role in Nazi Germany was solely to reproduce, so lesbian relationships went directly against this. As well as this, women who appeared outwardly masculine were subject to ire - the so-called ‘masculinisation’ of Aryan women displayed a degeneration just under the surface of the Third Reich, something that was intolerable to the regime.  

It is important to note that lesbians experienced the years of the Third Reich very differently according to their multiple identities. Jewish or Roma lesbians had far fewer options than their Aryan counterparts, for example. Those who had the financial resources to hide their sexuality or socially conform were able to evade persecution in many cases. 

Lesbians who were arrested by the Gestapo were often deported to concentration camps under the category of ‘asocials’. Their relationships with other women were viewed as subversive and disruptive of the social order, hence justifying their imprisonment in the eyes of the regime. It is difficult to determine just how many lesbians were imprisoned in concentration camps during the Holocaust, as very few women were identified in Nazi paperwork as lesbians. Nevertheless, we continue to remember them and honour them this Pride.