Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion

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Secret Decree Establishing the Reich Headquarters (October 10, 1936)

The Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion was the central instrument of the National Socialists for the persecution of homosexuals in the German Reich .

prehistory

With the fourth ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring of July 18, 1935, all doctors, midwives and other persons were required to notify them of “termination of pregnancy, miscarriage and premature birth” before the 32nd week of pregnancy from July 26th. The health authorities had to report these reports to the Reich Ministry of the Interior. In addition, the health authorities worked closely with the criminal police to track down illegal abortions .

In 1934, the special department for homosexuality was set up at the Secret State Police Office (Gestapa).

history

The Reichszentrale was founded on October 10, 1936 by a secret decree of the Reichsführer SS , Heinrich Himmler , as part of the reorganization of the criminal police at the Reich Criminal Police Office . The decree was not published in the Reichsministerialblatt der internal administration (RMBliV), but was sent to all state and criminal police offices . Their establishment was the prelude to the persecution of homosexuals, which began to increase again after the 1936 Olympic Games . The main task of the Reich Central was to collect data on homosexuals .

In 1940 files of 41,000 men who had been convicted or suspected of being homosexual were already stored.

The central data storage enabled the Reich headquarters to initiate and coordinate measures to persecute and punish homosexuals. For this purpose, the use of mobile special units was available, which could also intervene enforcement.

The first director was SS officer Josef Meisinger until the spring of 1938 , who was also head of the Gestapa's special department for homosexuality and who also remained in personal union. Then Kriminalrat Erich Jacob became head. From July 1943 Jacob was head of forensics, with the psychiatrist and neurologist Carl-Heinz Rodenberg at his side as scientific director . In 1943, both had a staff of 17 employees. The collection of an estimated 100,000 index cards was probably destroyed in the last days of the war.

The campaign of the National Socialists against the Roman Catholic Church , often because of alleged or real homosexual acts, began in 1936 before the establishment of the Reich headquarters and was broken off in the summer of 1937, probably because the propaganda effect hoped for in the population did not materialize. (→ Sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church - time of National Socialism )

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Fourth ordinance for the implementation of the Act for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases. From July 18, 1935. In: RGBl. I No. 82, July 25, 1935, p. 1037, Article 12 (Entry into force on the day after the proclamation; online at ALEX .)
  2. ↑ Jürgen Simon: Forensic Biology and Forced Sterilization: Eugenic Racism 1920–1945 , Waxmann Verlag, 2001, ISBN 978-3-8309-1063-3 , p. 221 ( limited preview in the Google book search.)
  3. ↑ a b Lexicon on the persecution of homosexuals 1933–1945 , Josef Meisinger
  4. ^ Stefan Heinz and Lukas Bergmann: Pursuit of "enemies of the people" as a state mandate. The "Reich Center for Combating Homosexuality and Abortion"
  5. ↑ Burkhard Jellonnek: homosexuals under the swastika. The persecution of homosexuals in the Third Reich. Schöningh, Paderborn 1990, ISBN 3-506-77482-4 , p. 128 f.

literature

  • Grau, Günter: Homosexuality in the Nazi Era. Documents of discrimination and persecution , Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 2004, ISBN 359-61-59733 .
  • Meisinger, Josef: The fight against abortion as a political task , In: German magazine for the entire judicial medicine [0367-0031], 1940 vol: 32 iss: 4 pg: 226-244.

swell

  • Hutter, Jörg: "The role of the police in the persecution of gays and lesbians under National Socialism" [1] .

Web links