Paragraph 175

This documentary about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals during the Third Reich, reveals the lasting consequences of this little known chapter of 20th century history through the personal recollections of six survivors. Between 1933 and 1945, 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality under Paragraph 175, the unenforced sodomy provision of the German penal code dating back to 1871. Some were imprisoned, others were sent to concentration camps. Of the latter, only about 4,000 survived. By the 1920s, Berlin had become known as a homosexual Eden where gay men and lesbians lived relatively open lives amidst a thriving community of artists and intellectuals, however with the coming to power of the Nazis, Paragraph 175 was revived to brutally crush this culture. Combined with archival images and an historical account of gay culture preceding and during the Third Reich, the moving testimonies of the now very elderly five men and one women raise provocative questions about memory, history, and identity. In English, German and French with English subtitles.