A German law, similar to the sodomy laws still enacted in many states in the U.S., called paragraph 175 prohibited homosexual relations.  Paragraph 175 was revised by Hitler in 1935 to include kissing, embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts.  Convicted offenders (estimated at 25,000 between 1937 and 1939) were sent to prison and then later to concentration camps.  Their sentence was to be sterilized, most often accomplished by castration.  In 1942 Hitler's punishment for homosexuality was extended to death.

Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted triangle to designate their reason for incarceration.  The designation also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners.  A green triangle indicated a regular criminal; a red triangle indicated a political prisoner.  Two yellow triangles overlapping to form a Star of David designated a Jewish prisoner.  The pink triangle was for homosexuals.  A yellow Star of David under a superimposed pink triangle marked the lowest of all prisoners, a gay jew.

Stories from the camps depict homosexual prisoners being given the worst tasks and labors.  Pink triangle prisoners were also a proportionally large focus of attacks from guards and other inmates.  The total number of homosexual prisoner is not known.  Official Nazi estimates were around 10,000.  International estimates of gay men killed in the camps range from 50,000 to 100,000.  When the war was over, countless homosexuals remained prisoners because Paragraph 175 remained law in West Germany until its repeal in 1969.

In the 1970's, gay liberation groups began using the pink triangle as a symbol for the gay rights movement.  Today it draws attention to persecution both then and now.  Today, the pink triangle also represents pride, solidarity, and a promise to never allow another Holocaust to happen again to homosexuals or anyone else.