Heinrich Georg Karl Heyer - English

Heinrich Georg Karl Heyer was born on February 14, 1914, in Wegeleben near Halberstadt. He was a farm and factory worker and lived in Magdeburg at Oranienstraße 3. His life was characterised by several prison stays and persecution due to his homosexual orientation. Heinrich Heyer was repeatedly imprisoned for violating Paragraph 175 of the then Criminal Code, which criminalised "unnatural fornication". 

According to records from 1935, he lived at Oranienstraße 3, whether with his parents is not known. He worked as a farm or factory worker without formal vocational training. In 1937 and 1938, he was sentenced to short prison terms for various offences, including "unauthorised wearing of uniform" and "evading military surveillance". In 1938, he was convicted under Paragraph 175 and sent to Coswig penitentiary. 

In August 1943, Heinrich Heyer was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp and housed in Block 30, the homosexual block. In February 1944, he was transferred to the Mittelbau-Dora subcamp, where the prisoners had to work on the construction of an underground production facility for the infamous V-weapons. 

Unter den unmenschlichen Bedingungen dieses "Arbeitslagers" wurde er bereits nach einem Monat per Krankentransport in das Konzentrationslager Bergen-Belsen gebracht, wo Heinrich Georg Karl Heyer am 9. April 1944 starb. Als Todesursache wurde offiziell Wassersucht angegeben. Die Lebensgeschichte Heinrich Heyers verdeutlicht die systematische Diskriminierung und Verfolgung von Menschen aufgrund ihrer sexuellen Orientierung während der NS-Zeit. 

After just one month in the inhumane conditions of this "labour camp", he was transported by ambulance to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where Heinrich Georg Karl Heyer died on April 9, 1944. The official cause of death was stated as dropsy. Heinrich Heyer's life story illustrates the systematic discrimination and persecution of people based on their sexual orientation during the Nazi era.