Apr 27, 2011

GAY BUCHENWALD SURVIVOR HONORED: The last known gay survivor of the Nazi holocaust is to receive the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur.

Rudolf Brazda, 97

Rudolf Brazda, 97, who spent three years in Buchenwald concentration camp, was recommended for the honour by President Sarkozy.

News of his award came 66 years to the day he left the camp, in 1945.

Philippe Couillet, president of Les Oublié(e)s de la Mémoire (an association campaigning for recognition of the suffering of gay people once imprisoned by the Nazis), said the award marked “a further step in the recognition of the deportation of homosexuals” and was a deserved reward for the bravery Mr Brazda had displayed in speaking publicly about his experience.

¨Happiness Always Came to Me¨

Author Alexander Zinn has documented Mr Brazda’s life in a new book titled Das Glück Kam Immer zu Mir (Happiness Always Came to Me). In addition, Mr Zinn has gathered material for a documentary which he hopes will be screened this year, which includes interviews with Mr Brazda and his return to Buchenwald.

It was after the unveiling of the Berlin monument to gay and lesbian holocaust victims that Mr Brazda came forward to tell his story. He has previously received the gold medals of the cities of Toulouse and Nancy...¨read it all HERE

· Thanks to Pink News, sidebar
· Thanks to Christopher Brocklebank

3 comments:

June Butler said...

Leonardo, what a nice story. The honor comes late, but it's surely a good thing that it finally came to Rudolf Brazda. He stands for all the gay people persecuted by the Nazis who have passed on.

Leonard said...

Thanks Mimi, I feel there are so many millions of unrecognized victims of evildoing and President Sarkozy´s nomination of this man is a well appreciated honor for LGBTI people and other persecuted beings everywhere.

What a sweet face this man has after looking at vileness eye-ball to eye-ball--imagine, ¨Happiness always came to me¨--what gratitude, what a man!

Thonny Hawany said...

Está é uma bela história mesmo. Um prêmio reconhecidamente merecido. Nada apaga os horrores do holocausto, mas atitudes como essa do presidente da França, ajudam-nos a suportar melhor ódio que sofremos por conta de ser gays, lésbicas, bissexuais, transexuais. Que Deus nos proteja a todos e sempre. Um viva a Rudolf. Parabéns pelo blog Leonardo Ricardo.