Adolf Hitler orders death sentences for homosexuals in November 1941:

“Führer’s Headquarters
November 15th 1941

In order to keep the SS and Police clean of vermin with homosexual inclinations, I hereby resolve:

I. For members of the SS and Police, the following sentences shall apply instead of subsections 175 and 175a of the Reich Penal Code: A member of the SS and Police who commits unnatural acts with another man or lets himself be abused for unnatural acts shall be punished with death. In less serious cases, penal servitude or imprisonment of not less than 6 months may be imposed. Where a member of the SS or Police was not yet 21 years of age at the time of the offences and was seduced into it, the court may, in especially minor cases, refrain from punishment.

II. Imposition of the sentences threatened under I is independent of the offender’s age.

III. The crimes designated under I come under the jurisdiction of special SS and Police courts in accordance with the provisions applying to them. The competence of Wehrmacht courts-martial is not affected.

IV. The provisions necessary to enforce and supplement this decree shall be ordered by the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.”

Signed,
Adolf Hitler