This hit hard, I wasn't aware there were no similar stories, even as there are stories of family writing queer loved ones... I can only hope some stories didn't survive I appreciate the hope...
“I think oftentimes when people talk about this history, they usually focus on cis gay men,” said Leah Rauch, the museum’s education director. “But there is a really exciting new, newish field of study, of scholars who are uncovering stories of people who were lesbians, bisexual, transgender and those really untold stories.”
Perhaps most significantly, researchers have learned that queer people were largely reported by people in their own communities. As many as a third of LGBTQ+ people who were arrested were denounced, that is reported to the Nazis, by their friends and family.
”That really changes the understanding of the Nazi period, because it’s easier to think that this was just a top-down hard line or dictatorial regime implementing all these policies, and they’re the ones doing the hunting down and finding of the so-called enemies of the state,” said [Jake] Newsome. “But what we’re actually seeing is that most Germans just did nothing to protect LGBTQ folks.”
Holocaust history is full of non-Jews risking their lives to help Jews under Nazi rule. Newsome feels the same cannot be said of most straight people for their LGBTQ+ neighbors.
“I have not found one single instance of a straight person risking, helping, protecting a queer and trans person during this history,” Newsome said. “Not a single one. And that’s a hard pill to swallow.”
This hit hard, I wasn't aware there were no similar stories, even as there are stories of family writing queer loved ones... I can only hope some stories didn't survive
“This history is full of queer and trans resistance,” said Newsome. “From everything from continuing to go out and just be true to yourself, to taking up armed resistance and bombing buildings to take a blow against the Nazis, there are all these examples that queer people have been active agents and actors in their own history.”
I appreciate the hope alongside the tragedy. I appreciate these lesser known stories coming to light too. It's weird in a way that it's validating to see the history of persecution impact lesbians and non-binary/trans/gender non-conforming people too. The pink triangle has, for good reason, taken up a lot of our mental real estate around queer holocaust history.
We've survived worse. We aren't going anywhere. And we have each other's backs
This hit hard, I wasn't aware there were no similar stories, even as there are stories of family writing queer loved ones... I can only hope some stories didn't survive
I appreciate the hope alongside the tragedy. I appreciate these lesser known stories coming to light too. It's weird in a way that it's validating to see the history of persecution impact lesbians and non-binary/trans/gender non-conforming people too. The pink triangle has, for good reason, taken up a lot of our mental real estate around queer holocaust history.
We've survived worse. We aren't going anywhere. And we have each other's backs