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[Gaborn]

Rudolf Brazda, 98, one of the last known survivors of those sent to Nazi concentration camps because they were gay, died Aug. 3 at a nursing home in Bantzenheim, in Alsace, France. The cause of death was not released.

Mr. Brazda, a survivor of the Buchenwald camp, waited more than six decades to tell his story. He came forward in 2008 after hearing about the dedication of a memorial in Berlin to honor “pink triangle” prisoners — the homosexuals deported to concentration camps where, as Jews were forced to wear uniforms bearing stars of David, they were branded with pink triangles.

Before Mr. Brazda emerged, activists thought that the last of those survivors had died.

Few gay victims of the Holocaust spoke about their experiences, said Klaus Mueller, a historian who has documented their stories and who collaborates with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Even after their liberation, society often treated them as transgressors, Mueller said, and they found little empathy for their suffering.

During the Nazi regime, 100,000 men were arrested under Paragraph 175, a German law that criminalized male homosexual acts, and 50,000 were imprisoned. The 5,000 to 15,000 sent to concentration camps endured forced labor so brutal that their survival rate was less than 40 percent.

Alexander Zinn, author of one of two books written about Mr. Brazda since 2008, described Mr. Brazda’s decision to share his story at age 94 as a kind of “coming out.”

Rudolf Brazda was born June 26, 1913, to a Czech family living Meuselwitz, Germany. He was the youngest of eight children in a poor family made poorer when his father died in 1920, but he told biographers that he enjoyed a happy childhood.

In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine not long before his death, Mr. Brazda recalled the summer day in 1933 when he met his first boyfriend. To “make his acquaintance,” Mr. Brazda said, he flirtatiously pushed the young man into the swimming pool.

A year later, they celebrated an unofficial wedding in the presence of Mr. Brazda’s family.

“For us looking back, it [seems] very astonishing and modern,” Zinn said. He thinks that Mr. Brazda simply didn’t understand the perils he would face.

Life in the relatively secluded countryside afforded a measure of freedom in the early years of the Nazi regime, when the Gestapo targeted the gay communities primarily in larger cities. Mr. Brazda moved in with his boyfriend; they were tenants of a woman who belonged to the Jehovah’s Witness faith, another group persecuted in Nazi Europe.

As Nazi aggression intensified, Mr. Brazda was in ever-increasing danger. He was arrested twice under Paragraph 175, with love letters and poems presented as evidence of his alleged crimes, before he was sent to Buchenwald on Aug. 8, 1942.

In the camp, Mr. Brazda was sent to a quarry, where laborers stood little chance of survival. A kapo — a fellow inmate forced by Nazis to supervise work at the camp — released him from that duty and provided for him to work instead in the clinic.

Mr. Brazda avoided almost-certain death again as liberation approached when he escaped a death march by hiding in a pig sty.

“I’ve always been lucky,” he told Jean-Luc Schwab, the other of his two biographers.

After the war, Mr. Brazda followed a fellow inmate to Mulhouse, France, where he remained until shortly before he died. There, he met Edouard Mayer, who would become his partner of more than 50 years, until he died in 2003.

Mr. Brazda left no immediate survivors.

He will be buried Monday, the 69th anniversary of his arrival at Buchenwald. The funeral, Schwab said, will feature a remark that Mr. Brazda made not long before his death:

“God gave me the gift of the homosexual life.”

Story Here

 

[2th]

Lucky and brave man to survive the holocaust. The world will suck when the last holocaust survivor dies. But we must keep telling their stories.

 

[ZephyrFate]

That's really sad. I didn't even know about the pink triangle thing. That's fucking horrible. As horrible as anything else in the Holocaust.

 

[Escape Goat]

That's really sad. I didn't even know about the pink triangle thing. That's fucking horrible. As horrible as anything else in the Holocaust.

You'll see the pink triangle repurposed as a gay pride symbol these days.

 

[Instigator]

“I’ve always been lucky,”

He must have gotten some action back at the camp.

 

[Koodo]

Ugh, I remember all those videos of the Holocaust during senior year in high school. What an atrocious stain in humanity's history.

“God gave me the gift of the homosexual life.”

Gerl, preach all the way to heaven.

 

[Zzoram]

That's really sad. I didn't even know about the pink triangle thing. That's fucking horrible. As horrible as anything else in the Holocaust.

Many groups other than the Jews were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. The Jews were the largest group so that's all anybody talks about, but visible minorities, gays, and gypsies were also slaughtered.

 

[SmokyDave]

After the war, Mr. Brazda followed a fellow inmate to Mulhouse, France, where he remained until shortly before he died. There, he met Edouard Mayer, who would become his partner of more than 50 years, until he died in 2003.

Aah, there's my feelgood moment of the day.

Okay, back to being cantankerous.

 

[Mr. Sam]

Yeah, this made me a little teary. Sue me.

 

[TacticalFox88]

Bravo. :'( Truly one of the most heinous acts in the history of mankind

 

[Mr_Brit]

How did they know they were gay? I thought being gay back then was highly stigmatised so people kept it to themselves.

 

[Koodo]

How did they know they were gay? I thought being gay back then was highly stigmatised so people kept it to themselves.

It was a criminal act, so I'm assuming through accusations. "I saw so and so do this," and this is Nazi Germany we're talking about, so that was probably enough to get these men locked up.

 

[Kiarushka]

Semi on topic question, but how and why do some people deny that the holocaust really happened?

 

[Instigator]

Semi on topic question, but how and why do some people deny that the holocaust really happened?

Certain extreme elements have their own convenient set of facts that doesn't conflict with their worldview. Human nature 101.

Some might also be annoyed that the Holocaust is exploited by others for personal gain.

 

[Lonewolf_92]

How did they know they were gay? I thought being gay back then was highly stigmatized so people kept it to themselves.

If you read the story it mentions love letters and poems were used as evidence. I'm sure "eye-witness testimony" (other homosexuals looking to avoid the camps and just people looking to get rid of others so rat them out as homosexuals ala the Salem witch trials) was also common. I'm sure the Nazi courts weren't overly picky.

 

[SmokyDave]

Semi on topic question, but how and why do some people deny that the holocaust really happened?

Most 'deniers' don't really 'deny', they try to downplay the numbers and pretend that lots of deaths were indirect and not caused by being put in fucking death camps. Some are totally batshit and deny the entire thing. As for why, I have no idea.

 

[Mumei]

How did they know they were gay? I thought being gay back then was highly stigmatised so people kept it to themselves.

In addition to what Lonewolf said, there were actually large, visible, and in many cases publicly-known gay communities in many countries during the 1890s - 1930s in cities like New York, Berlin, London, and Paris, and there's evidence of large gay subcultures in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. For instance, in many larger cities there were drag balls that were attended by thousands, including what we would today call straight people, and covered by newspapers at the time

And pre-Nazi Germany itself was arguably at the forefront of gay lib movements around the world, with Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft at the forefront of that.

There was also a crackdown in the United States between the 1930s - 1970s, though obviously not so draconian as what the Nazis did.

 

[Dead Man]

Sounds like an awesome guy, RIP.

In addition to what Lonewolf said, there were actually large, visible, and in many cases publicly-known gay communities in many countries during the 1890s - 1930s in cities like New York, Berlin, London, and Paris, and there's evidence of large gay subcultures in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. For instance, in many larger cities there were drag balls that were attended by thousands, including what we would today call straight people, and covered by newspapers at the time

And pre-Nazi Germany itself was arguably at the forefront of gay lib movements around the world, with Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft at the forefront of that.

There was also a crackdown in the United States between the 1930s - 1970s, though obviously not so draconian as what the Nazis did.

I always learn something from your posts.

 

[Gaborn]

In addition to what Lonewolf said, there were actually large, visible, and in many cases publicly-known gay communities in many countries during the 1890s - 1930s in cities like New York, Berlin, London, and Paris, and there's evidence of large gay subcultures in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles. For instance, in many larger cities there were drag balls that were attended by thousands, including what we would today call straight people, and covered by newspapers at the time

And pre-Nazi Germany itself was arguably at the forefront of gay lib movements around the world, with Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft at the forefront of that.

There was also a crackdown in the United States between the 1930s - 1970s, though obviously not so draconian as what the Nazis did.

Someone is showing off their education

 

[ZephyrFate]

Many groups other than the Jews were sent to concentration camps during the Holocaust. The Jews were the largest group so that's all anybody talks about, but visible minorities, gays, and gypsies were also slaughtered.

I know that already.

 

[LakeEarth]

Rudolf Brazda, 98, one of the last known survivors of those sent to Nazi concentration camps because they were gay, died Aug. 3 at a nursing home in Bantzenheim, in Alsace, France. The cause of death was not released.

Skydiving.

Interesting that barely any movies that show concentration camps ever show the gay prisoners. The only exception I know is Mel Brooks To Be Or Not To Be.

 

[thetrin]

“God gave me the gift of the homosexual life.”

I'm not sure why, but I find that to be a pretty beautiful phrase.

 

[Stealth Editor]

He must have gotten some action back at the camp.

Not really a time to celebrate with sex

 

[Ezalc]

I didn't even know about this Pink Triangle thing, wow. RIP.

 

[SpaceBridge]

I wonder what happened to his first partner?

Great story though and a true testament to our common experiences as a species.

 

[Stealth Editor]

I wonder what happened to his first partner?

If he used to be a nazi, i smell a best picture Oscar.

 

[Double D]

Guy's hand looks gargantuan in that pic.

 

[Raiden]

I sometimes wish i was born in the 60's or so, just to hear the stories of soldiers and all. Its kinda sad to think that in about 10 years or so they will all have died.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

I didn't even know about this Pink Triangle thing, wow. RIP.

Red = Political
Green = Criminal
Blue = Emigrant
Purple = Bible Student movement (mostly Jehova's witnesses in Germany)
Pink = Homosexual
Both Black = "work-shy" or "asocial" Reich/Foreign (can't read it that good)

 

[Escape Goat]

I sometimes wish i was born in the 60's or so, just to hear the stories of soldiers and all. Its kinda sad to think that in about 10 years or so they will all have died.

I would ask my grandma about her life all the time. I did several reports and used her as a source several times. She lived through the Great Depression, the Civil Rights movement, experienced a life of squalor and relative comfort. It was the details and stories that are going to be lost to future generations. I wanted to know everything because I couldn't, and still can't, begin to understand what people went through back then.

It really was the Greatest Generation. People who lived through dark and trying times and rebuilt the world through their own blood, sweat and tears. People today are soft and complacent with government aid programs, white collar jobs and the like. We really don't know true adversity. I hope we don't have to go through what these people went through ever again, but I'd like to think know that we haven't lost that drive to not just succeed but to prosper by our own two hands.

 

[ZephyrFate]

I sometimes wish i was born in the 60's or so, just to hear the stories of soldiers and all. Its kinda sad to think that in about 10 years or so they will all have died.

 

[Lerozz]

Rest in peace.

 

[subversus]

Skydiving.

Interesting that barely any movies that show concentration camps ever show the gay prisoners. The only exception I know is Mel Brooks To Be Or Not To Be.

There was one with Clive Owen.

"Bent"

The movie is built around love between Owen and another prisoner of the camp.

edit: here it is - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118698/