The last known gay Nazi death camp survivor, Rudolf Brazda, has died at 98 years.
Brazda died at a hospital in Bantzenheim, France in his sleep, Philippe Couillet, a friend and associate of Brazda, told the European news service.We wrote about the "Rosa Winkle" and gay Nazi concentration camp victim's here. We've also written about the Homomonument in Amsterdam, Netherlands here. The death of Rudolf Brazda is a good time to meditate on how important it is to remember just how quickly right wing fanatacism can envelope a country and how when we fight for the observance of our equal civil rights, we are fighting for our very right to exist in society so that this kind of nightmare might not ever happen again.
At the age of 29, Brazda was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in August 1942. He remained in the camp until 1945, when the camp was liberated by allied troops.
Being gay was a crime under Nazi Germany's laws, and tens of thousands of people were convicted and sent to concentration camps. Prisoners had to wear a downward-pointing pink triangle on their jackets that identified them as gay or lesbian.
h/t to Michael Bedwell for this news tip.
