A man who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp for being gay
has died at the age of 98. Rudolf Brazda was said to be the last
surviving person who had been interned by the regime for
homosexuality and was known as ‘the last of the pink triangles’,
in reference to the markers gay men were forced to wear. His
death was announced by the Berlin branch of the Lesbian and Gay
Association, or LSVD, which did not give further details. Mr
Brazda was held at the Buchenwald concentration camp for three
years between 1942 and 1945. Born in 1913, he lived openly as a
gay man and worked as a roofer before the Nazis came to power.
But in 1937, he was arrested after a secret police investigation
and jailed for six months. On his release, he moved away and
continued working but was arrested and imprisoned again on
homosexuality offences four years later. After a prison
sentence, he was sent to the concentration camp where he worked
in heavy labour and then roofing, while witnessing atrocities
towards other gay prisoners. Whe