Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death.
The following individuals received the death penalty for it. After the Nazi takeover in , the persecution of homosexuals in Germany became a priority of the Nazi police state. Between and , an estimated , men were arrested as homosexuals; ten thousands of which were sentenced by courts. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5, and 6, were imprisoned in concentration camps.
The death rate of these prisoners has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than those of other prisoner groups. A smaller number of men were sentenced to death or killed at Nazi euthanasia centres. After the war, homosexuals were initially not counted as victims of Nazism because homosexuality continued to be illegal in Nazi Germany's successor states.
The details of the accusation are often not given in contemporary sources, with euphemisms such as "unnatural offence" used. However, such terms were also used to describe bestiality, non-consensual acts, and crimes against minors.
Due to this, sources discussing and listing capital offences for homosexuality, including the table below, may inadvertently include men executed for such offences. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. List of persons executed for homosexual activity.
