Robert Oelbermann (1896-1941) and Rudi Pallas (1907-1952)

As part of a campaign against the former youth movements, Robert Oelbermann, founder of the Nerother Bund, was sentenced in September 1936 to twenty-one months of hard labour under §175. After eighteen months, he was sent to Sachsenhausen, where he organized, with Rudi Pallas, former Scout leader and other pink triangle, resistance activities with homosexual and political deportees.

Oelbermann died at Dachau, where he was transferred in August 1940, but Pallas was released in May 1940 and incorporated on the Eastern Front before being taken prisoner by the Russians. He is one of the few homosexual deportees to be recognized as a “war victim” for his anti-fascist commitment. In 1952, when he was the subject of a new investigation by the West German police for homosexuality, he committed suicide.

back to the exhibition