Arts & Entertainment
Paragraph 175
Paragraph 175
review by Roman Graf
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In HBO’s production of the Rob Epstein/Jeffrey Friedman film “Paragraph 175”, six gay men and a lesbian woman relate their experiences under the Nazi persecution of homosexuals in Germany. The stories of Karl Gorath (born 1912), Pierre Seel (1923), Heinz F. (1905), Albrecht Becker (1906), Gad Beck (1923), Heinz DÃrmer (1912), and Annette Eick (1909) are at once moving and brutally real. They recount the destiny of a minority that remained forgotten throughout the history of post-war Germany’s VergangenheitsbewÅltigung, Germany’s efforts to come to terms with its Nazi past.
About 100,000 homosexuals were arrested during Hitler’s regime and between 10,000 and 15,000 of them went into concentration camps, where they formed the lowest level of inmates, often subjected to medical experimentation, singled out for extreme abuse, and ostracized. Today, only 10 of these victims are believed to be alive. Since 1871, Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code stated: “An unnatural sex act committed between persons of the male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights may also be imposed.”
It remained in effect until 1969 with one adjustment in 1935. Since then it read: “A male who commits a sex offence with another male or allows himself to be used by another male for a sex offence shall be punished with imprisonment.”
Any treatment of this subject has to fall short of portraying the actual trauma experienced in those days. However, this HBO “must-see” production succeeds in showing how the past exerts its power on the lives of people in today’s society. At the same time, Paragraph 175 never falls victim to an exploitive emotionalism prevalent in so many cinematographic treatments of this subject, but rather allows the viewer actual insights into the psyche of holocaust survivors.
The collage of interviews, film footage from the 1930s, photos of the interviewees, and scenes from contemporary Germany demonstrate how interconnected seemingly disparate parts of life actually are. This documentary does not convey a simplistic sense of cause and effect but shows how individual lives are constructed and remain under the influence of past experiences. Since two of the interviewed survivors are homosexual Jews, a connection between the fate of Jews during the Third Reich and the lives of homosexuals at the time is established. Again, this film avoids equating the fate of these two groups of society, but rather demonstrates similarities and differences in their wartime experiences. In fact, the repeated images of train tracks suggest the tracking of paths, eternally changing under the influence of experiences collected along the way. No single path is the same, although experiences might be similar.
We hear about love relationships between Jews and Christians, the homoeroticism inherent in the homosocial relationships of the Boy Scouts or the Hitler Youth and the military in general, secret encounters in parks and bedrooms, and the realization of the homoerotic nature of sports. These positive experiences with homoeroticism connect in almost grotesque ways with the persecution of homosexuals at the time. They are tied intimately to the experience of separation and death, which in turn shapes the rest of the lives of the survivors. Whether it is a Frenchman who had promised himself never to shake the hand of a German again or the refugee returning from a concentration camp never to be able to relate his experiences to anyone in his family, the confrontation with inhumane forms of torture like being raped by guards with several centimeters of stick or the seemingly perverted desire to join the army after these horrific experiences, every individual story points at much larger issues. How easy is it to forget disaster around oneself? How readily do people adjust to circumstances? Can we ever work through our past? How much do personal attitudes depend on social circumstances?
These seven personal stories are carefully interwoven into the historic events of Germany during the Third Reich. We learn about Hitler’s ascent to power, the Reichskristallnacht, the persecution of the Jews, the establishment of concentration camps, the book burnings, and the meaning of the various triangles stitched onto prisoners’ clothes. We also learn about the connection between homoeroticism and the body cult of the SS and SA, the ties between Ernst RÃhm’s homosexuality and his death, and the work of the psychiatrist Magnus Hirschfeld. At the same time, an inspired choice of musical scores throughout this production underlines its various messages. Be it the famous words of Marlene Dietrich’s “Falling in love again, never wanted to, what am I to do? I can’t help it!” or Mahler’s 5th Symphony, which reminds us of Visconti’s film version of Thomas Mann’s short novel Death in Venice, connections between homoeroticism and death permeate the musical choices.
In my opinion, this movie leaves us with a good general understanding of the events in the 1930s in Germany and allows us an unprecedented insight into the lives of homosexuals of those times. Furthermore, it reveals the effects of the events in the 1930’s and 1940’s on individual homosexuals. It confronts us with the fact that after 1945 homosexuals were not liberated but remained victims of persecution until the late 1960’s. One of the interviewees was imprisoned again in the 1950s and 1960’s for his sexual orientation. It leaves us with a sense of despair when we have to realize that “at the century’s end, not one has received legal recognition as a victim of the Nazi regime,” or as one of the victims expresses it: “It’s all over for me. I’ll be 93 in September.”
Roman Graf is Associate Professor of German and currently Associate Provost for Institutional Diversity at Middlebury College. His research interests include Literary Theory, Queer Theory, and 18th-century German, English, and French literature. He lives in Cornwall, VT.