THE FORGOTTEN NAZI VICTIMS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The Nazi persecution of gays, while not on the scale of the Holocaust and many of the regime's other brutal crimes, certainly had a uniquely insidious aftereffect. For decades following the end of World War II, homosexual survivors were still considered enemies of the state.

You don't really learn this fact until the end of ``Paragraph 175,'' the latest documentary from the estimable directing team of Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (``Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt,'' ``The Celluloid Closet''). That's one of several factors that leave this work feeling less impactful and complete than it could be, but it also represents the key reason why: the Nazis' now extremely elderly homosexual victims have been harassed for most of their lives and have been consequently made reluctant to (pardon the expression) come out with their worst horror stories.

``Paragraph 175'' remedies that situation before it's too late, and for that reason alone it's a valuable document. The film also makes a fine primer for the many who may be unaware, both in and outside of the gay community, that Hitlerian intolerance cast a very wide net. Those who already know the history, however, could wish for a little more depth in the picture's examination of the very complex relationship between homosexuality and this particularly fetishistic form of fascism.

The film's driving force is Klaus Muller, a German project director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who has been instrumental in bringing Nazi gay policies to light. He interviews a variety of aged survivors - mostly German, some Jewish, all but a few markedly unwilling to dredge up the painful past - and elicits uniformly compelling testimonies. Some of the old gentlemen prefer to revel in memories of the pre-Hitler paradises of decadent Weimar Berlin and the widespread, back-to-nature German youth movements; others focus on absurd ways they tricked the Gestapo or the heartbreaking losses of lovers.

Narration by Rupert Everett, archive footage and re-enactments explain the weird mutations, through the years, of the title sodomy law, which goes back to the 1871 German Penal Code and remained in force in the Federal Republic through 1969 (communist East Germany dropped it from the books a year earlier). We learn that lesbians were tolerated, if not accepted, due to the sexist nature of party ideology. There's also a fairly concise explication of the strange case of Ernst Rohm, the openly gay leader of Hitler's SA thug militia, whom the fuhrer uncharacteristically protected from his own edicts - until, of course, he had to have him assassinated.

There is more to learn, obviously; much more. But ``Paragraph 175'' makes for a good introductory course and, it hardly needs to be mentioned, comes to us better late than never.

``PARAGRAPH 175''

(Not rated: nudity, language, violence, sexual content)

Behind the scenes: Directed and produced by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Written by Sharon Wood. Released by New Yorker Films.

Running time: One hour, 21 minutes.

Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

Our rating: Three stars