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daralexandria's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Deportation, Confinement, Outing, Violence, Gun violence, War, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Genocide, and Murder
k_lenn's review against another edition
5.0
“Today, people have long stopped talking about the sufferings and killings of the Nazi concentration camps, and no longer want to be reminded of them, but we, the ex-prisoners, will always remember what we suffered.”
This book is a must-read. Just beware that it contains slurs and vivid descriptions of torture, etc.
Josef Kohout tells his story (documented by his friend Hans Neumann/“Heinz Heger”) in The Men with the Pink Triangle as one of the many gay men imprisoned and tortured by Nazis during WWII. He informs readers of how he was brought into the camp, prisoner hierarchy, methods of torture used against them, and how he strategically fought for his life, having sexual encounters with more powerful men in exchange for protection against starvation, deadly labour, and more.
Josef and the other prisoners endured unfathomable suffering, and it didn’t quite end after the war. Gay survivors left the camps not as victims, but as criminals, and were denied compensation until
very recently in 2017. From my understanding, some gay men were liberated from these camps just to end up getting arrested again for the “crime” of homosexuality.
Like many gay survivors, Josef passed away in the 90s without any financial compensation from the government and was largely ignored by neighbours and collegues as he tried to rejoin society.
“My request for compensation for the years of concentration camp was rejected by our democratic authorities, for as a pink-triangled prisoner, a homosexual, I had been condemned for a criminal offense, even if I'd not harmed anyone. No restitution is granted to "criminal" concentration-camp victims.”
“But why are we homosexuals still treated so inhumanely, why are we still persecuted and imprisoned by the courts, just as in Hitler's time?”
Due to the history of suppressing queer voices, many people still don’t know the community was targeted. Unfortunately I was pretty ignorant before reading this book too. I knew they were imprisoned, but not to this degree.
Josef’s story is very difficult to read, but very important. This is the outcome of dehumanizing people and why we need to be checking and challenging our biases constantly.
“But whether we gays live in Vienna or anywhere else, we can live as decent a life as we want, but the contempt of our fellow humans, and social discrimination, is the same as it was thirty or fifty years ago. The progress of humanity has passed us by.”
To end on a happier note: while researching Josef, I discovered he met his partner a year after leaving the camps and they stayed together until he passed away. I hope they lived a very happy life in those 48 years together.
maestro_cerrotorcido's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This book is incredible. I would say it is a must read for everyone. Most people don't realize not only how horribly gay men were treated during the Holocaust, but also how the defeat of the Nazis was not liberatory for them. The Stalanist and liberal states were just as homophobic as the Nazis. There was no recompense for gay men suffering through the Holocaust, no Nuremburg for them, nothing but more imprisonment and detestations from everyone around them. Unfortunately this has resulted in very few gay male Holocaust survivors telling their stories. That makes this book so important.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Death, Genocide, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Classism, Hate crime, Outing, Slavery, Confinement, and Violence
Moderate: Trafficking, War, Sexism, and Antisemitism
shqdow's review against another edition
5.0
5 stelle perché è un libro che deve essere letto.
Forte, brutale , schietto, probabilmente non per tutti, ma con una testimonianza fondamentale di una di quelle tante categorie perseguitate di cui non si parla mai.
“Che restino sempre nel nostro ricordo, queste moltitudini di morti, vittime senza nome e immortali.”
Forte, brutale , schietto, probabilmente non per tutti, ma con una testimonianza fondamentale di una di quelle tante categorie perseguitate di cui non si parla mai.
“Che restino sempre nel nostro ricordo, queste moltitudini di morti, vittime senza nome e immortali.”
lenastockton's review against another edition
5.0
Very eye opening book about an atrocity that isn't covered as much as the others of World War II. I highly recommend this for any reader.