Paragraph 175

This eloquent, deeply disturbing documentary shines light on the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany, which remains a dim corner of 20th-century history. The title refers to the section of a 1871 German penal code that made sex between two men punishable by imprisonment; a broad anti-sodomy law, Paragraph 175 also outlawed sex with animals. The statute came in handy when, after the dizzy sexual freedom of the Weimar Republic, it came time for the Nazis to rid their National Socialist State of gay men. Unlike lesbianism, which by some strange twist of logic was thought of as a temporary condition, male homosexuality was considered a dangerous contagious disease — th...