On 29 April 1945, American forces liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau in Germany. For thousands imprisoned there, it marked the end of unimaginable suffering. But for many gay and bisexual men, and some trans women targeted under Nazi anti-homosexual laws, liberation did not mean freedom. Under the Nazi regime, people accused of homosexuality were arrested under Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code, a law the Nazis aggressively expanded in 1935. Tens of thousands were investigated, imprisoned, or sent to concentration camps. Inside the camps, many were forced to wear the pink triangle — a symbol that marked them for brutal treatment from guards and fellow prisoners alike. Many were tortured, medically experimented on, castrated, beaten to death, or murdered outright. When Allied troops liberated the camps, most survivors were released. But those imprisoned under Paragraph 175 were often treated differently. According to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, occupation authorities classified them as ordinary criminals rather than victims of Nazi persecution. The US military handbook for occupied Germany specifically instructed that prisoners still serving criminal sentences should be transferred to civilian prisons. That meant some men walked out of Nazi concentration camps only to be locked up again. One survivor, known as Hermann R., had been imprisoned at Landsberg Fortress near Dachau. When American soldiers arrived, he celebrated alongside other prisoners, believing the nightmare was finally over. Two weeks later, a US military official reviewed his records and told him: “Homosexual — that’s a crime. You’re staying here.” The persecution did not end with the collapse of Nazi Germany. The Allied occupation authorities left the Nazi-strengthened version of Paragraph 175 in place. In West Germany, more than 50,000 people were convicted under the law after the war, and arrests continued for decades until the law was finally repealed in 1969. East Germany reverted to the older version of the law, but thousands were still prosecuted there as well before repeal in 1968. Unlike many other Holocaust survivors, LGBT+ victims were denied recognition for decades. Time spent in concentration camps was not acknowledged as racial or political persecution, pensions were reduced, and compensation was largely denied. Many survivors died before receiving any public acknowledgment of what had been done to them. The pink triangle, once used by the Nazis to isolate and humiliate queer prisoners, would later be reclaimed as a symbol of resistance and remembrance by LGBT+ movements around the world. History often remembers liberation as a single moment. For many queer survivors of the Holocaust, freedom came much later — if it came at all.