A review by k_lenn
The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps by Heinz Heger

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.