That is just not true. Homosexuality was absolutely a crime.

Karl Gorath, a gay man, was first convicted under the law in 1934. He was sent to the Neuengamme concentration camp and later to Auschwitz, where he survived until its liberation by the Soviet Red Army on Jan. 27, 1945.

In 1946, more than a year after the end of the war, Gorath was prosecuted again. During a court appearance, the same judge who had convicted him during the Nazi era greeted him with the words: “You’re here again.”

Gorath was sentenced to five years in prison and later spent decades battling to undo the injustices done to him. His Nazi-era conviction was annulled shortly before his death in 2003. Post-war convictions were only annulled in 2017.