October 15th, 2010
Rudolf Brazda, 97, is probably the last surviving “Pink Triangle”, gay men who were rounded up by the Nazis and detained in concentration camps for being gay. They were made to wear pink triangles as an indication of their reason for imprisonment. Brazda spent three years from 1942 through 1945 at Buchenwald. Some estimates push the number of gay men who died in the camps at somewhere between 5,000 and 15,000.
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jOHN
October 15th, 2010
So where is the interview?
Priya Lynn
October 15th, 2010
How could he be 97, there are no gay senior citizens, all gay men die at 42, right?
Martin
October 15th, 2010
Priya, perhaps, but remember that some of us have serial 41st birthdays. ;)
Tone
October 15th, 2010
It is a privilege to listen to him speak, to have our history documented for us, for now and for future generations, that we may never forget what systematic dehumanization can lead to.
In the end how much difference is there between the people who declared Rudolf Brazda’s life of little value, and those on the political and religious right who seek to do the same thing?
Timothy Kincaid
October 15th, 2010
Hey, if Jack Benny could be 39 for four decades, why can’t I?
mikeksf
October 15th, 2010
Thank you BTB for posting this video. I felt it was perfect bookend to the previous one you put up from the Ft. Worth Councilman, Joel Burns. A span of 70 years and I was reminded again that it can get better and that freedom is a constant struggle.
jOHN
October 15th, 2010
Oh…I think think the video is blocked by my company I will have to check it out when I get home.
On of my favorite plays is BENT and I first read this in college and got to see it about 20 years ago here in San Francisco and was made into a movie and is worth checking out. The subject matter is very strong and the friend that I went with me to see the play left at intermission because he could not deal with the emotions that were brought out in the play.
Regan DuCasse
October 15th, 2010
The Simon Weisenthal Center maintained some rare videotaped interviews of gays and lesbians who survived that time. Most of the testimonies, from about 500 or so people, are written ones. Recorded from different European countries.
When we screened several, such as documentaries about gay related Holocaust issue over a period of a week for Pride month, interestingly, there were surviving family members. Such as parents,siblings, nieces and nephews, and children of gay victims or survivors of the Holocaust who also were interviewed.
I forget who curated that exhibition of films, but it was an amazing week.
Parisian, and Berlin based gays recalled the intellectual and artistic atmosphere that lent a live and let live situation. Nurturing for gays and lesbians in ways very different than what we see in our more Puritan based values right now.
The Holocaust was a shock because of how that intellectual aspect, gave over to a more brutal one, and gay people, like Jews, had no one willing to defend them.
Just as our staunch opposition keeps asserting, gay people were suddenly ‘defectives’. Dangerous defectives.
Which is why this attitude they have gives me chills and makes me so sick and angry.
You’d think that the people in the FRC and so on, had NEVER seen the very Holocaust documentation out there or knew nothing of how the Nazis went about their business and influenced the neighbors, university peers and professors and so on, against them.
Which is so inexcusable in our country that such ignorance or willfulness against this knowledge goes on.
As long as someone is around to tell it, we’ll know.
You can understand why I consider the ADF’s counter demonstration, “Day Of Truth” is as offensive as teaching Holocaust denial and demonstration of it, on Shoah.
Cory Sampson
October 15th, 2010
But of course, as we all know, Mr. Brazda was just another part of the Nazi Homosexual agendaaAAARGH
How can Scott Lively sleep at night?
Terry
October 16th, 2010
Bravo Rudolf. I am inspired by your resilience and strength. Carry on.
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