Arrested by the Gestapo in 1935 for being a homosexual, Becker spent three years in Nuremberg prison; after his release, he felt forced to joined the German army and was a soldier on the Russian front (1940-1944). His story is one of six personal histories recounted in the 2000 documentary about the Nazi persecution of gays and lesbians, Paragraph 175. He was working in the post-war German film industry.