German Justice Minister Heiko Mass says that he intends to overturn the tens of thousands of convictions against gay men that occurred between 1946 and 1969, the BBC reports.
The Nazis strengthened laws against homosexuality, which the German government chose to continue enforcing for decades. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, though the actual law was not repealed until 1994. About 50,000 men were found guilty under the law.
"We will never be able to eliminate completely these outrages by the state, but we want to rehabilitate the victims," said Maas. "The homosexual men who were convicted should no longer have to live with the taint of conviction."