The Pink Triangle: From Nazi Persecution to Symbol of Pride

A badge worn by gay men in Nazi camps became a powerful symbol. It represents LGBTQ+ memory and resistance today. In spring 1937, a prisoner arrived at Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin. His uniform had a pink triangle pointing downward. He was not Jewish. He was not a political prisoner. He had been arrested under Paragraph 175. This German law made sexual acts between men illegal. Thousands wore that triangle. Most did not survive. Paragraph 175 and the Nazi State Paragraph 175 was not new. The law existed since 1871 when Germany was founded. It made "unnatural fornication" between men a crime. Enforcement changed over time. During the Weimar Republic, from 1919 to 1933, the law was rarely…