A Paragraph in History: Paragraph 175
by Steve Pride
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Rob Epstein and
Jeffrey Friedman
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Paragraph 175 is a
haunting new documentary from Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. If the
names sound familiar it's because they are the team behind the
Oscar-winning Common Threads:
Stories From the Quilt and the landmark Emmy-winning The Celluloid Closet. Before
the partnership, Rob Epstein won an Oscar for The Times of Harvey Milk.
The new film is every bit as bold and moving as you'd expect from these
guys. Using personal testimonies and haunting images, they tell the
largely ignored story of gay people in Europe during the Nazi era. It is
the real Bent and is
not to be missed.
Recently they took time out of their busy schedules to speak to PlanetOut.
PlanetOut: Explain the title of the film.
Jeffrey Friedman: Paragraph 175 was the paragraph of the German
penal code that referred to male homosexuals. It was an anti-sodomy law
that had been on the books since the German Republic was formed in the
19th century. It was strengthened and used aggressively by the Nazis
during the Second World War to persecute gay men.
PlanetOut: How many people did you interview?
Rob Epstein: Of the eight or so known survivors we spoke to five.
We also interviewed one lesbian who was very helpful in painting a
picture of what Berlin was like before the war.
PlanetOut: There are only eight known survivors?
Rob: The numbers are difficult. We are talking about a group that
was not well identified. The Nazis were against homosexuality, but the
policy wasn't so clear-cut within the Nazi hierarchy. Historians using
mathematical methods have come to a consensus that there were 100,000
arrests, 50,000 convictions, and from that 10,000 to 15,000 gay
men went to concentration camps. Once in the camps the death rate of the
homosexuals was among the highest of the non-Jewish prisoners. So it
makes sense that there would be so few alive today.
Jeffrey: And it has been nearly sixty years.
PlanetOut: Tell us about the genesis of the project.
Jeffrey: Rob and I were in Amsterdam in 1996 for the theatrical
premiere of The Celluloid Closet. It was a fabulous night with
hordes of drag queens. We got a letter at our hotel from Dr. Klaus
Mueller on U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum stationery asking for a
meeting. We had no idea who he was, but arranged to meet him for lunch
the next day. We expected an old German professor type in tweeds, but
Klaus turned out to be a young, good-looking German scholar living in
Amsterdam doing research on Nazi persecution of gays. Klaus said he had
located a handful of men who were willing to come forward with their
stories for the first time. They were very old and hadn't been willing to
talk until now. He asked us if we would help get their stories out to the
world.
PlanetOut: The subjects interviewed in Paragraph 175 are
between 76 and 94 years old. Did the advanced age of your subjects
present any special problems?
Jeffrey: Because the men were so old and in such fragile health, we
felt a great deal of urgency to move quickly. We weren't sure we could
raise the money for a film like this. Channel 4 in England gave us enough
to start, but in the course of preproduction one of the men we wanted to
interview died. So our urgency was justified.
PlanetOut: But for a long time wasn't Germany very gay friendly,
despite the law on the books? We've all seen Cabaret. ...
Jeffrey: Of course, and the whole first part of the film is about
Weimar Germany. Before Hitler, Berlin was a mecca for gay people, much
like San Francisco or Amsterdam is today. It was a place where "anything
went." Although there was a law on the books, just as there is a law on
the books in many states in this country, it wasn't enforced. It was just
a remnant of a previous generation. Or so it seemed, until the Nazis came
to power and found a new use for it.
PlanetOut: So then came the Holocaust. ...
Rob: But it's important to make the distinction between Holocaust
victims and other victims of Nazi persecution. Something the historians
impressed upon us from the beginning is that the Holocaust is really a
reference to the systematic extermination of six million Jews. With
homosexuals and the other victim groups, the death machine was not
operating in such a systematic way.
PlanetOut: I didn't mean to lump everyone together. In fact, your
film points out that the fall of Hitler had a very different impact on
Jews and gays.
Jeffrey: After the war ended, the Nazi form of Paragraph 175
stayed on the books in West Germany until 1970. East Germany reverted to
the original version of the law, finally repealing it in 1969. In fact,
homosexuality wasn't completely legal in the unified Germany until the
1990s. That's why it took so long for this to come out. This really is
the last untold story of that period. The men were still considered
criminals after the war. The allied judges that went in and reorganized
the defeated Germany after the war made a determination as to how the
concentration camp prisoners were to be treated. The Jews were freed. But
the homosexuals were considered criminals.
Rob: Theoretically, once liberated from the concentration camp you
could find yourself sent to a prison to finish out your sentence.
PlanetOut: How have audiences reacted when Paragraph 175
has screened at film festivals?
Rob: Probably the most moving audience response was directed
toward one of the film's subjects, Pierre Seel. ...
PlanetOut: He was the Frenchman arrested when the Germans annexed
Alsace.
Rob: Right. He was sentenced to a work camp, where he was forced to
witness the brutal murder of his lover. In the film he says he never
expected to shake hands again with a German. So here he was at the
Berlin Film Festival getting a standing ovation from the two thousand
people in the auditorium. That was very moving to witness, and Pierre made
a statement of reconciliation in response.
PlanetOut: Before anyone decides they won't see this film because
it sounds too dark and depressing, I should add that there is still a lot
of life and humor left in these men. I especially loved the photographer
Albert Becker.
Jeffrey: Right. When Albrecht got out of prison he amazingly
turned around and joined the German army because, he said, "that's where
the men were." He spent the rest of the war taking pictures of naked
German soldiers. I should add he has taken a picture of himself, naked,
every day for the last 50 years.
* Read the PopcornQ review of Paragraph 175
For more information on Paragraph 175 or any of the films from
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, visit their Web site at
http://www.tellingpictures.com.
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