Joseph Regisser (1892-1952)

A merchant in Strasbourg, Joseph Regisser has led a «homosexual life» since he was 28 years old. The German annexation of Alsace forced him to be cautious. I

He replaces his fixed relationships with fleeting sexual contacts with anonymous people in the city’s vespasians, which remain a meeting place. While helping a couple of friends who had been prosecuted for homosexuality, he was arrested and sentenced in 1942 by the Landgericht (Tribunal de Grande Instance) in Strasbourg to two and a half years in prison, including two years for violating §175, a sentence he served in Kislau (Baden-Baden).

In 1944, the police refused his release and ordered him placed in «security detention» at the Vorbruck-Schirmeck camp (Alsace), where homosexuals wear a blue square. The allied advance probably led to its maintenance in Germany until the end of the war.

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