GLBT people have a history of co-opting and adopting as our own, the labels, symbols and slang others have used to demean us. I don't particularly care for this habit, and as an example I don't use the various epitaphs (e.g. queer) that we've tried to make our own.
Nevertheless, among the symbols that we've adopted, the "Pink Triangle" is probably the least understood outside of our own circles. I was talking to my friend Mark about it recently and he refused to believe that what I was telling him about it was true. But of course it is, and here thanks to an article I recently read on Box Turtle Bulletin is the first person account of Rudolf Brazda, perhaps the last GLBT survivor of Nazi Germany's Buchenwald concentration camp.
His memory and attitudes about his experience are quite remarkable and even more so considering he's giving this interview at age 97. His is an incredible story of survival and the triumph of the human spirit over evil, hatred and intolerance. After such a tumultuous experience so early in his life, that he could find the love of his life and they together find their way in the world for nearly 60 years speaks to the incredible ability of love to heal the human heart.
"Fear Eats the Soul"
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