In August of this year, Rudolf Brazda, the last living victim of the Third Reich's oppressive program against gays went to his peaceful reward.
The Rosa Winkelers of Hitler's Germany
Rudolf Brazda, 98 years young at his passing, was the last known wearer of the infamous pink triangle (rosa Winkel in German), a piece of fabric sewn onto the uniforms of homosexual prisoners in Germany's concentration camps. The uniforms of gay prisoners were marked with the pink triangle to distinguish them from common criminals who wore green triangles, political prisoners who sported red, gypsies and those considered asocial who were branded with black. Jews, of course, had to sew yellow stars of David on their clothing.
Legislation Against Homosexuality
Initiated in 1871, Paragraph 175 of the Reich Penal Code set up punishments against male homosexuals. These were largely unused for decades, but with the rise of the Third Reich, the mothballed legislation was reestablished and enhanced with extremely punitive measures. In the hands of Hitler's Gestapo and other groups, the application of Paragraph 175 came to include torture, medical experimentation, and death. The Nazi's created an increasingly inhumane program by which they hoped to find, punish, and thereby eliminate homosexuals throughout Germany and Europe.
At least partly based on Heinrich Himmler's conviction that "gayness" was contagious, the punishment of gays was intended to further the long term goals of the Reich. " I would like to develop a couple of ideas for you on the question of homosexuality," offered Himmler. "The people which has many children has the candidature for world power and world domination. A people of good race which has too few children has a one way ticket to the grave..." He added, speaking of gays, "Therefore we must be absolutely clear that if we continue to have this burden in Germany, without being able to fight it, then that is the end of Germany, and the end of the Germanic world. "
Gays didn't have to be caught to be arrested. They only had to be suspected or named by another. Not naming someone, anyone, usually resulted in a continuation of beatings and torture.
Fortune Smiled on the Survivor
That Rudolf Brazda lived through the war at all is something of a miracle. Twice arrested and imprisoned after the tolerant attitude of the previous government disappeared when the Nazis took power, Brazda saw his life change from simply secretive, to horrifying. “There was great freedom for us. I couldn’t imagine anything else. Then we started hearing about Hitler and his bandits.”
At Buchenwald, two guards acted as saviors, enabling Rudolf to survive. The first, likely gay himself, got Brazda a job away from the rock quarry. In addition to being safer, it was a position which granted him extra servings of food, a welcome nutritional boost. Later, just before the prisoner death marches that served as a prelude to the Nazi's abandonment of the camps, another guard hid Rudolf in a pig pen. "I lay there for 14 days until the Americans came," Brazda revealed, grateful for his own life even as he mourned the more than six hundred “Winkelers” who didn't make it out of Buchenwald.
One Man's Tale is Another's Reality
Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim was another of Hitler's gay victims. His story is revealed in a short film released in 1993 called, "We Were Marked with a Big "A"." Von Groszheim, normally a reticent man, decided to make his story known in honor of those that died and those who still live. “I’m living proof that Hitler didn’t win. I’m aware of that every day. If I don’t tell my story, who will know the truth?” His story included details of torture, imprisonment, and a final indignity. He was given the choice of voluntary castration or a concentration camp.
From Symbol of Despair to Symbol of Hope
Though accurate records are not available, it is believed that up to 15,000 gay men ended up in the concentration camps. Few survived, and those who did were often imprisoned again by the Allies who came to liberate the camps. After all, homosexuality was still a crime in many countries, only being rescinded in France in 1982 and in Germany's two parts in 1968 and '69. Though they had survived horrors beyond imagination, neither Brazda nor Freidrich-Paul felt able to speak freely for decades. Now, of course, the pink triangle is a symbol of gay rights and freedoms, a fitting legacy for the rosa Winkel and all who suffered under the weight of that particular pink triangle.
Barbara Castleton - Researcher, writer, teacher, trainer, and collector of stamps on her passport, Ms. Castleton currently works and lives in North Africa.
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