V-E Day: Watch a Gay Holocaust Survivor Recount His Experiences

Before his death in 2011, Rudolf Brazda recalled his time as a prisoner at the Nazi death camp of Buchenwald. Brazda, 97 at the time of the 2010 interview, spoke with Yagg, a French gay news source. (German-born Brazda settled in France after Buchenwald was liberated by the Allies.) His testimony was previously the subject of Itinerary of a Pink Triangle, a book by Jean-Luc Schwab.

"The son of Czechoslovakian immigrants in Germany, Rudolf Brazda was 20 when Hitler rose to power," reports Yagg. "He had lived his homosexuality freely and openly until the law penalizing homosexuality, the notorious 'Paragraph 175,' was toughened by the Nazi regime. On August 8, 1942, after having gone to prison twice, he was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald, where he was given the number 7952, and a pink triangle."

Watch the video below: