Paragraph 175 was a section of the German legal code that criminalized consensual relationships between men. During the Third Reich, this statute was used by the Nazi regime to persecute men suspected of homosexual activity, resulting in widespread arrests, imprisonment, and long-term persecution. While thousands of men were processed through the concentration camp system under Paragraph 175, their experiences are unevenly documented and often obscured within broader categories of incarceration. This project examines records from Dachau to surface patterns of arrest, detention, and duration of imprisonment associated with Paragraph 175.
This data visualization analyzes records of men imprisoned at Dachau for violations of Paragraph 175.
This project is a data-driven case study of men held at the Dachau concentration camp for alleged violations of Paragraph 175. The dataset was manually constructed from digitized Dachau camp records and focuses on individuals explicitly or implicitly identified as imprisoned for homosexual activity.
Through exploratory data analysis, the visualization reveals shifts in arrest patterns, sentence length, geographic concentration, and outcomes over the course of the Nazi regime, while also foregrounding gaps and inconsistencies within the archival record. Rather than presenting these records as a complete account, the project treats the data as partial evidence of a broader system of persecution and erasure.
Data Source
- Dachau Camp Records: Alphabetical Register of Prisoners of the Concentration Camp Dachau, A – Z
- 341 individuals included
Method
- Manually cleaned dataset derived from archival prisoner records related to Paragraph 175
- Exploratory data analysis to identify temporal, geographic, and sentencing patterns
- Power BI for data cleaning, analysis, and visualization