99-year-old Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned for being gay dies without compensation
A 99-year-old gay man who was persecuted by the Nazi regime for being gay has died without receiving compensation.
Wolfgang Lauinger passed away on Tuesday night after a lifetime of activism against the wrongdoings in Germany against the LGBTQ+ community.
Protesters with a sign reading: “Hate is no alternative” (Getty)
Lauinger was imprisoned in Nazi Germany and post-war West Germany for being gay.
He spent eight months in prison from 1941 to 1942 because of his connections to the “Swingkids”, a youth movement who opposed the Hitler Youth and celebrated American swing music and culture.
After his release from prison, Lauinger went into hiding in order to survive the regime.
The activist was one of the leading campaigners against Paragraph 175, a piece of legislation that criminalised sex between men until it’s abolition in 1994.
The 1871 law was utilised by the Nazis to convict around 50,000 men between 1933 and 1945.
After the war, Lauinger was arrested once more in 1950 after police raids on local gay spaces.
He was kept for five months under violation of Paragraph 175.
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