JUNE 24, 1933

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES BANNED IN PRUSSIA

The Nazi government of Prussia, the largest state government in Germany, bans Jehovah's Witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to make the "Heil Hitler" greeting and, beginning in 1935, to serve in the German army. The Nazis begin mass arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses in 1936. Many Witnesses are imprisoned in concentration camps, and they are represented in nearly every major camp. Generally, Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to renounce their convictions, even though they could obtain release from the camps by signing a declaration renouncing their beliefs.

JUNE 28, 1935

NAZIS TOUGHEN LAW AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY

The Nazis persecuted German male homosexuals, whose sexual orientation was considered a hindrance to the preservation of the German nation. On June 28, 1935, the Nazi state toughens Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, making even friendships between male homosexuals a criminal offense. "Chronic" homosexuals are deported to jails and prisons; some are later remanded to the camps. About 10,000 homosexuals, mostly German or Austrian, were imprisoned in concentration camps, where they had to wear a pink triangular patch marking them as homosexuals.

AUGUST 18, 1944

COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER EXECUTED IN BUCHENWALD

Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist party since 1925 and one-time candidate for the German presidency, is executed in the Buchenwald camp. He is killed by his SS guards during an air raid on a nearby factory. Thaelmann had been arrested after the fire that destroyed the Reichstag (German parliament) building in 1933. He spent more than 11 years in the camps. Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists were among the first groups persecuted by the Nazis.