Adolf Hitler signed an edict that SS and police personnel would be subject to capital punishment if caught engaging in homosexual activity. Some underwent castration or other Nazi human experimentation aimed at 'curing' homosexuality. About 100,000 were arrested, 50,000 convicted and some 5,000 to 15,000 interned in Nazi concentration camps, where they were forced to wear pink triangle badges. In Nazi Germany, homosexuals were persecuted.

Ernst Röhm, a prominent Nazi known for his homosexuality