Wilhelm “Willi” Kühlen

Willi Kühlen was born on June 12, 1912, in Mönchengladbach, Willi was a salesman who later pursued a career as an artist. His life was tragically shaped by the persecution of gay men under the Nazi regime.

Willi was first arrested in May 1938 in Duisburg for having sex with men. He was sentenced to over two years of imprisonment in the Neusustrum/Papenburg camp. Upon his release, rather than regaining his freedom, he was sent to the front as a soldier, a fate imposed on many persecuted individuals during the war.

It appears that as part of his release agreement, Willi was pressured into a "remote" marriage, as records suggest he and his wife never truly knew each other. The marriage ended in divorce within two years. By this time, Heinrich Himmler had ordered that men convicted under Paragraph 175 more than once should never be released, making Willi’s case an unusual exception, possibly due to his military conscription.

Later letters from a friend reference a man named Klaus, whom Willi seemed to deeply care for, suggesting he may have had a romantic partner despite the oppressive conditions of the time. Tragically, Willi was killed at the end of the war, around May 1945.