Liddy Bacroff

Guest Biography by Dr. Marcel Strobel in honor of Trans Day of Remembrance. 

Liddy Bacroff was a self-identified “transvestite” (a term coined by German-Jewish sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld in his 1910 study The Transvestites), woman, and sex worker. She was born on August 19,1908 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, an industrial city in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. During her childhood, Liddy was placed into a reformatory home for one year, after which she started an apprenticeship at the Ludwigshafen Volksschule that she left early. 

Throughout the 1920s, a period known as the Weimar Republic, Liddy had several encounters with the police including fines for theft and trespassing as well as a two-month prison sentence for violating Paragraph 175, Germany’s anti-sodomy law that criminalized same-sex desire among men. Since Liddy's name at birth was Heinrich Eugen Habitz, she was constantly read as a male homosexual in female disguise by the police. After her release from prison, Liddy went to Berlin before moving to Hamburg where she was arrested again for theft, homosexuality and sex work. During her time in prison, Liddy wrote autobiographical non-fiction about her life as a “transvestite” and sex worker. In the course of these writings, Liddy started using the name “Liddy Bacroff” as well as “transvestite” to describe her identity as a woman and sex worker who is longing for love, companionship and belonging. Two of her most known writings include “Freedom! (The Tragedy of a Homosexual Love)” and “An Experience as a Transvestite: The adventure of a night at the transvestite bar Adlon!” 

In 1936, Liddy was arrested for theft and sex work, the documentation of which made her more prone to persecution at the time. In 1938, Liddy was sentenced to three years in a Zuchthaus with preventive detention. During this time, she filed for “voluntary castration” but her request was denied since she was deemed “incorrigible” and “a corrupter of morals” by a Nazi doctor. Later that year, Liddy was sentenced to three years in prison before being transferred to the prison in Bremen-Oslebshausen and Rendsburg. In 1942, Liddy was deported to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp where she died on January 6, 1943. Her life shows an interconnected thread of transgender hostility across the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Liddy’s bravery and resilience will forever be remembered. 

Sources: Arolsen Archives; Exhibition “Vom anderen Ufer”; Hamburg State Archive

Pink Triangle Portraits Biography:

Liddy Bacroff, a trans woman and sex worker, was born on August 19,1908 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. During her childhood, Liddy was placed into a reformatory home for one year, after which she started an apprenticeship at the Ludwigshafen Volksschule that she left early. Throughout the 1920s, Liddy had several encounters with the police including fines for theft and trespassing as well as a two month prison sentence for violating Paragraph 175. 

Since Liddy's name at birth was Heinrich Eugen Habitz, she was constantly ID‘d as a male homosexual in female disguise by the police. After her release from prison, Liddy went to Berlin and Hamburg where she was arrested again for theft, homosexuality, and sex work. During her time in prison, Liddy wrote autobiographically about her life as a “transvestite” and sex worker. In the course of these writings, Liddy started using the name “Liddy Bacroff” as well as “transvestite” to describe her identity as a woman and sex worker who is longing for love, companionship, and belonging. 

Two of her most known writings are “Freedom! (The Tragedy of a Homosexual Love)” and “An Experience as a Transvestite: The adventure of a night at the transvestite bar Adlon!” In 1936, Liddy was arrested for theft and sex work, the documentation of which made her more prone to persecution at the time. In 1938, Liddy was sentenced to three years. She filed for “voluntary castration” but was denied since she was deemed “incorrigible” and “a corrupter of morals” by a Nazi doctor. 

Later that year, Liddy was sentenced to three years in prison before being transferred to the prison in Bremen-Oslebshausen and Rendsburg. In 1942, Liddy was deported to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp where she died on January 6, 1943. Her life shows an interconnected thread of transgender hostility across the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. Liddy’s bravery & resilience will forever be remembered.