Rudolf Braz, June 26, 1913 - August 3, 2011, last known pink triangle concentration camp survivor.

Learn more here



https://www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/brazda

snip-"At 29 years old, Rudolf was deported to Buchenwald for violation of Paragraph 175. He remained silent about his experience for most of his life after liberation. Rudolf broke his silence at the age of 95. He spent the rest of his life inspiring people with his story.


snip-"Rudolf's family knew from early on that he was gay and always accepted him. He found a community among other gays and lesbians in Meuselwitz and nearby Atlenburg by frequenting local meeting houses and clubs. Despite the existence of Paragraph 175, Germany’s national anti-gay law, Rudolf recalled little discrimination in his home town and felt free to be himself. In 1933, the same year as Hitler’s rise to power, he met his first boyfriend, Werner. The two gave each other feminine nicknames in their relationship, Inge for Rudolf and Uschi for Werner. They moved into a small boarding house with a Jehovah’s Witness landlady who accepted their relationship. Shortly after getting settled in, Rudolf and Werner got married. Of course, their marriage was not legally recognized, but it was true and real to them. Rudolf's family even attended the ceremony as witnesses.
snip-"One of the first acts of Nazi violence that Rudolf experienced was at a popular gay meeting place in Leipzig, a coffee-shop called “New York.” Rudolf recalled, “The SA pulled us out, dragging us by our hair.” In 1937, he was arrested for violation of Paragraph 175 and sentenced to six months in prison, charged with “unnatural indecency between men.” The love letters Rudolf and Werner had written to each other were used as evidence against him. Werner, who had enlisted in the German military, was also soon arrested, and the two never heard from each other again. "


snip-"
After Rudolf was released from prison, he was deported to Czechoslovakia, a country unfamiliar to him. He soon moved to the German-speaking Sudetenland and found work as a roofer. After the Germans invaded the territory, Rudolf was arrested again under Paragraph 175 in 1941 and sentenced to fourteen more months in prison. While serving out his sentence, Rudolf was deported to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where he was assigned the number 7952 and forced to bear the pink triangle. At twenty-nine years old, Rudolf was one of the youngest prisoners there. As soon as he was interned in the camp, he was subject to forced labor for a period that ultimately lasted 32 months. "
more there

Next source-https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZ_XXWkhORl/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

snip-"Rudolf Brazda came of age in the last days of Weimar Germany, in love with a young man named Werner and so accepted by his family that they stood as witnesses at the couple’s small unofficial wedding. Then Hitler criminalized men like him under Paragraph 175. Rudolf was deported to Buchenwald, branded with a pink triangle, and reduced to a number. He survived nearly three years, walked out, and built a quiet life in France with his love Edi, saying nothing about the camps for more than sixty years. In 2008, when he learned Berlin was finally building a memorial to the gay men the Nazis destroyed, he realized the world thought no survivors were left. At ninety five he came forward as the last known pink triangle survivor, and France later made him a knight of the Legion of Honour. He made sure they could never be erased. Here is what they decided you didn’t need to know."

(You do not need to have an Instagram account to read the post)


Third source-his wiki page-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Brazda

snip-"Although other gay men who survived the Holocaust are still alive, they were not known to the Nazis as homosexuals and were not deported as pink triangle internees. At least two gay men who were interned as Jews, for instance, have spoken publicly of their experiences."

snip-With the help of a kapo who hid him in the early days of April 1945, shortly before the camp's evacuation, Brazda was able to avoid being sent away with thousands of prisoners. These forced evacuation measures turned into death marches for nearly half of them, who were shot on the spot if they were too weak to sustain the pace."


snip-As of 2008: Public recognition of his life story
edit
In spite of old age, he remained a keen observer and follower of the news. Thus, in 2008, when he heard on German TV of the impending unveiling of a memorial to homosexual victims of Nazism in Berlin, he decided to make himself known. Although he was not present at the monument's inauguration on 27 May 2008, an invitation was extended to him to attend a ceremony a month later, on the morning of the Berlin CSD gay pride march. Brazda subsequently was invited to attend a number of gay events, including Europride Zurich in 2009 and some smaller scaled events in France, Switzerland and Germany."


more there


Fourthsource

https://arolsen-archives.org/en/news/rudolf-brazda-they-didnt-destroy-me/



snip-"I am not railing against my fate. I am thankful that I am still fit”, said Brazda with a smile. After 64 years, in November 2009, Brazda viewed his original documents from Buchenwald Concentration Camp for the first time – “Committed to the camp on 8th August 1942, § 175 homosexual, prisoner number 7952, pink triangle” – entry list, effects’ card, prisoner’s identification sheet. In stark words, the bureaucracy of horror lists the stages of his degradation."

Copies of the well known and meticulous Nazi record cards are here.

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