ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Last Known Gay Holocaust Survivor Speaks Out in New Interview

By Leave a Comment

Reprinted from the Advocate – BY ADMIN  DECEMBER 23 2008 1:00 AM ET 

Rudolf Brazda, a 95-year-old German citizen and the last known gay survivor of the Holocaust, has definitively broken his silence on his experience at the Buchenwald camp.
Rudolf Brazda, a 95-year-old German citizen and the last known gay survivor of the Holocaust, has definitively broken his silence on his experience at the Buchenwald camp. In a new interview in the French gay magazine Têtu, Brazda speaks in detail for the first time since he made provisional remarks at the June inauguration of a Berlin memorial to gay victims of the Nazis. The way
Nazis treated the ‘pink triangles’ is unspeakable,” Brazda told Têtu, referring to the emblem gays were forced to wear to signify their homosexuality. “They had absolutely no mercy.”
The “pink triangles” not only had to suffer the ill treatment of the Nazis but also had to endure the homophobia of
other prisoners. In the documentary Paragraph 175, which takes its name from the German criminal
code provision regarding homosexuality, Pierre Seel, the only Frenchman to have publicly testified about his imprisonment for being gay, explains that “the weakest people in the camps were the homosexuals; they were at the very bottom.” Seel died in 2005.
Mug shot of a homosexual prisoner in Auschwitz. Pink triangles were used to designate homosexual inmates. State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Oświęcim, Poland
 
Before Brazda first spoke in June, the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) did extensive research to authenticate and certify his testimony. He may not be the only survivor still alive, though, according to LVSD spokesman, Alexander Zinn. “No one ever invested the time and the money to try and find all those who survived,” Zinn told Têtu. It’s estimated that 75,000 gays were deported by the Nazis.
While other survivors of the camps were celebrated at the end of the war, gay survivors usually had to remain silent about their experiences because homosexuality was still illegal in many European countries (such as France,
where it was not decriminalized until 1982). “Before, no one cared about this tragedy,” Brazda told Têtu when asked why he didn’t speak out earlier.
After he was freed from Buchenwald, Brazda moved to France and built a house, where he lived for 35 years with his partner, who died in 2002. (Thibault Chareton, Advocate.com)

https://youtu.be/x-1uFsOXWhQ

LGBT Victim Support Helpline Opens In UK

By Leave a Comment

By The Gay UK, Jan 26 2015 02:28PM

Stop Hate UK are pleased to announce the launch of a helpline offering advice, support and telephone-based advocacy to victims of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Hate Crime.
The service has been funded until March 2016 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and will operate across England, Scotland and Wales. The national charity, founded in 1995, will work closely with the LGBT Consortium and other third sector organisations, local authorities and police commissioning areas to ensure the helpline is accessible to all who need it including those in rural areas.Rose Simkins, Chief Executive for Stop Hate UK, said,
“Our existing helplines have received increasing numbers of callers over the past few years and we are pleased to have provided support to so many people who have suffered as victims of Hate Crime because of some aspect of their identity. We hope that the launch of this new service for LGB&T people, introducing a varied range of reporting methods, will empower and facilitate more people to step forward to seek support.”
The Gay British Crime Survey (Stonewall/YouGov, 2013) found that 1 in 6 lesbian, gay and bisexual people had suffered from a hate incident or crime within the previous 3 years. However, only one third of these crimes and incidents have been reported. Various reasons for not reporting were given, including concern that they would not be taken seriously and fear of reprisal.
The Stop Hate UK LGB&T helpline offers people an alternative method of reporting with additional support if required.
Alex, from the organisation safeT UK – strength, awareness, freedom and empowerment for Transgender people, said,
“I received a brilliant service from Stop Hate UK when I was subject to repeated transphobic hate crime. It’s very reassuring to see that Stop Hate UK are able to extend their services to include more support for Transgender victims of hate crime across a wider area of the UK ”
People across England, Scotland and Wales who have experienced, witnessed or know someone who is experiencing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Hate Crime can contact the LGB&T Hate Crime helpline on 0808 801 0661, or visit our website www.stophateuk.org, for support and information. The helpline is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; calls are free from landlines and most mobiles but we can always call you back if you want.
Calls are confidential and ongoing support will be offered. Referrals to other services, including the police, are made where consent has been given by the victim.
Callers can also report hate crimes and incidents by text, text relay, web chat, online forms, post and email.