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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
PARAGRAPH 175
During the Third Reich, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 men
were persecuted under Paragraph 175, the German law
penalizing male sodomy (lesbianism was not seen as a
threat to the Fatherland). It is estimated that two-thirds
perished in concentration camps. Paragraph 175 covers
much of the same ground as the documentary Desire
(1989)–life during the Weinmar Republic, the rise of
Nazism, and the persecution of gays in the Third Reich. What sets this documentary apart are the interviews of six
men and one woman who came of age shortly before and
during Hitler's regime. Now in their 80s and 90s, these men,
plus two others who declined to be filmed, are the only
known gay survivors of Nazi persecution. Saving the most
probing footage for the film's last quarter, their touching
and often angry accounts paint a harrowing picture.
Fascinatingly, one was a member of Hitler's Youth, while
another fought in the German army. These often painfully
personal revelations make this compelling film memorable,
and sequences of evocative, sometimes sensuous and often
arresting images enhance the mood.
The DVD special features add little historical information,
except for two interviews from the Shoah Visual
Foundation of Jewish concentrations camp survivors. One
relates how a gay man was singled out for death, and the
other gives credit to a man wearing a pink triangle badge
for saving her life. Commentary by the directors and
producer Ehrenzweig largely deals with production
minutiae and behind-the-scenes negotiations for the
interviews. Incredibly, the producers had to pay the
German government for the rights to use Nazi propaganda
footage. Kent Turner
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