Transgender people in Nazi Germany

In Nazi Germany, transgender people were prosecuted, barred from public life, forcibly detransitioned, and imprisoned and killed in concentration camps.

Though some factors, such as whether they were considered "Aryan", heterosexual with regard to their birth sex, or capable of useful work had the potential to mitigate their circumstances, transgender people were largely stripped of legal status by the Nazi state.

'transsexualism', adapted into English as the term transsexual) was first coined in 1923 by Magnus Hirschfeld, but would not enter widespread use until 30 years later with the work of Harry Benjamin.

[16] These qualities often led to uneven enforcement of the laws, and openly transgender or gender-queer people in Germany lived under constant threat of legal charges at the whim of individual German police officers.

[22][25] In response to the advocacy of Hirschfeld and others of the first homosexual movement, the Weimar Republic even went so far as to permit legal name changes for transgender people.

"[39] The Institute collected extensive data on the transgender condition through interviews, surveys and clinical studies, and its research was some of the first to differentiate gender identity from sexual orientation.

[45] The beginning of the end for the Golden Years of Berlin occurred on 20 July 1932, when Franz Von Papen orchestrated the 1932 Prussian coup d'état and took control of the Free State of Prussia as Reich Commissioner.

Berlin was located in Prussia, and Papen, a conservative Catholic, began more strictly enforcing Paragraph 175 and other anti-homosexuality and anti-transvestitism laws in the region.

while ransacking and vandalizing the Institute, tearing pictures from the walls, pouring inkwells onto carpets, and destroying exhibitions while the band played outside.

[48] That afternoon, the Sturmabteilung (SA) arrived and systematically confiscated the Institute's materials, including thousands of books and documents from its library and archive.

[50] Four days later, on 10 May 1933, as many as 25,000 of the institute's books, many of which contained unique insights into transgender history and medicine, were burned nearby in Bebelplatz Square.

[35] Gohrbandt in particular joined the Luftwaffe as a medical advisor, and later contributed to human experimentation in the Dachau concentration camp,[35] where transgender people like the ones he once treated are known to have been held as prisoners and murdered.

[65] On 10 October 1936, the Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und der Abtreibung (Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion) was created by decree of Heinrich Himmler to establish guidelines on prosecuting homosexuality, and coordinating the prosecution of transgender people was generally also considered within its jurisdiction.

[18] Under Franz Von Papen's orders, in the summer of 1932, a series of raids had been carried out against gay, lesbian and transgender bars, and it was announced that these places would no longer be able to acquire dance permits.

[74] Nunn provides of a particular case study of a transgender lesbian known as R., who the Nazis considered to be Aryan, non-homosexual and a good worker, who was arrested in 1938 but was released after two years in prison on the assumption that she would detransition.

[79] During the First World War, this belief was so ubiquitous that transgender organizations urged their members to wear clothes associated with their birth sex for the sake of their personal safety.

[80] Many transgender people were imprisoned and murdered in Nazi concentration camps, though it is unknown exactly how many were killed or died as a result of their mistreatment.

"[63] Von Ruffin recalled hearing of one occasion when a transgender woman was forced to undress, then had her head forcibly shoved into a dirty latrine until she drowned.

[62][84][85] At least one Austrian trans woman, referred to as Bella P., is known to have been imprisoned in a concentration camp after a sentence under a law targeting "unnatural fornication".

[73] In one notable example, German transgender woman and sex worker Liddy Bacroff submitted a request for a 'voluntary' castration on 4 April 1938, following an arrest for crossdressing and being on a date at a restaurant with a man.

[65][87] A repeat offender of German anti-homosexuality and anti-prostitution laws, including Paragraph 175, Bacroff requested "to be cured of my sick passion which has led me onto the path of prostitution".

One trans man, known by the masculine nicknames "Kleener"[c] and "Dicker",[d] was arrested for crossdressing in August 1940, but was released after promising to wear women's clothing in public.

[89] A postal worker known as Gerd W., who was a transgender man, petitioned in 1940 to have his transvestite pass restored after being unhappy attempting to live as a woman.

In the case of German trans woman and club proprietor Toni Simon, her file's final document calls her a "danger to youth" and recommends sending her to a concentration camp as "absolutely necessary", without any further information on her fate.

[93] They were briefly released in 1938, but were rearrested on a charge of "atrocity propaganda" for sending a letter detailing their experiences in the concentration camps to a friend in London, after which no further records of them are known to exist.

[97][98] In a speech given at the commemoration, German Bundestag President Bärbel Bas stated "For our remembrance culture, it's important that we tell the stories of all victims of persecution, that we make their injustice visible, that we recognize their suffering.

"[97] Transgender people have also been recognized or commemorated as victims of the Holocaust by the Human Rights Campaign,[99] Amnesty International,[100] the European Parliament,[101] the Museum of Jewish Heritage,[68] and the United Nations.

Laurie Marhoefer gave an expert statement on the case that was not ultimately presented to the court, writing "though there is a bit of variation and disorganization, and race matters, we see a pattern of state violence and oppression here, motivated by a hostility specific to transgender people.

[108][109][110] On 14 March 2024, Rowling responded to the accusations in a post on her personal website, calling them "baseless and disgusting" and stating that she had "always been a staunch supporter of the Jewish community".