Paragraph 175 (2000)

Somewhat of an interesting pairing with my recent viewing of The Times of Harvey Milk, this is another gay-themed documentary about the persecution and murder of gay men during the Nazi regime. The narration by Rupert Everett is a bit droning and slow, but it only mildly distracts from the power of the stories being told. Only 4,000 of the 100,000 men persecuted under Paragraph 175 survived and only 10 were known to be living at the time of this film. That makes the telling of these five stories and the history they represent so important. While it doesn’t shy from talking of the atrocities these people faced, it also allows them to tell their full stories, including moments of love and tenderness both before and during the war. It’s heartbreaking that even after the fall of the Reich, Paragraph 175 existed in some form in both countries until German reunification.