Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim

Friedrich-Paul was born in the old trading city of Luebeck in northern Germany. He was 11 when his father was killed in World War I. After his mother died, he and his sister Ina were raised by two elderly aunts. After graduating from school, Friedrich-Paul trained to be a merchant.

1933-39: In January 1937 the SS arrested 230 men in Luebeck under the Nazi-revised criminal code's paragraph 175, which outlawed homosexuality, and I was imprisoned for 10 months. The Nazis had been using paragraph 175 as grounds for making mass arrests of homosexuals. In 1938 I was re-arrested, humiliated, and tortured. The Nazis finally released me, but only on the condition that I agree to be castrated. I submitted to the operation.

1940-44: Because of the nature of my operation, I was rejected as "physically unfit" when I came up for military service in 1940. In 1943 I was arrested again, this time for being a monarchist, a supporter of the former Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Nazis imprisoned me as a political prisoner in an annex of the Neuengamme concentration camp at Luebeck.

After the war, Friedrich-Paul settled in Hamburg.

Related Links
Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals (USHMM online exhibition) The Persecution of Homosexuals under the Nazi Regime (CAHS Symposium) Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals (USHMM Special Focus) Homosexuals: Victims of the Nazi Era (USHMM brochure series) USHMM Library bibliography

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