Germany compensates 249 persecuted over homosexuality law

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have compensated nearly 250 people who were prosecuted or investigated under a Nazi-era law criminalizing homosexuality that continued to be enforced enthusiastically after World War II. The Federal Office of Justice said Monday that, up to the end of August, 317 people had applied for compensation and it had been paid out in 249 cases. So far, it has paid out nearly 860,000 euros (just over $1 million). German lawmakers in 2017 approved the annulment of thousands of convictions under the Paragraph 175 law. In 2019, the government extended compensation to people who were put under investigation or taken into investigative custody but not convicted.