Context: During WW2 Alan Turing was essential to the efforts to break the Nazi Enigma code. In 1952 the British government chemically castrated him for being gay, in 1954 he took his life.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2026
333 points (100.0% liked)
History Memes
191 readers
6 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
- No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
- No fascism (including tankies/red fash), atrocity denial or apologia, etc.
- Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
- Follow all FAF rules.
- History referenced must be 20+ years old.
- Avoid posting AI-generated content whenever possible.
OTHER COMMS IN THE HISTORYVERSE:
founded 3 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I don't know if Veritasium is a reliable source, but the recent video on Alan Turing made it seem like Alan had a good job and happy life for several years after WW2. Not defending that the UK government were pieces of shit, but I don't think it's accurate to say they turned on him "the second WW2 was over".
Edit: I checked another source. It was early 1952 that he was caught by the police in a homosexual relationship. So I guess he had around 6 happy years after the war.