Dead at 88, German hero Gad Beck escaped Nazi regime in spite of being a Jew, and gay

[wfgodot]

Gad Beck (Telegraph obit)
Gad Beck, who has died aged 88, was a gay Jew in wartime Berlin, placing him in double jeopardy with the Nazi regime.

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His closest call came in 1942, when his boyfriend, Manfred Lewin, was arrested and held at a detention centre in Berlin.

Clad in an ill-fitting uniform of the Hitler Youth, Beck bluffed his way inside and demanded to speak to the commandant. Having convinced him on some bogus pretext to release Lewin, albeit temporarily, Beck and his friend made their way to the exit.

But Lewin suddenly turned back, refusing to be separated from his parents. The Nazis subsequently deported the entire family to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
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much more at link above

[Gardenlady]

Thank you for these posts.

[LadyL]

wow, once again, thanks for posting an interesting thread wfgodot

I'm embarrassed to admit I don't think I've ever considered the welfare of gays in the nazi regime & had no idea about the pink triangles

I'll be on the lookout for Gad Beck's book

[wfgodot]

The Pink triangle and Paragraph 175 (Wiki)

Picture of prisoners

[badhorsie]

We are losing a very brave generation right now, I don't think we will see their like again.
We should cherish these brave old people

[HockeyGirl]

Originally Posted by badhorsie

We are losing a very brave generation right now, I don't think we will see their like again.
We should cherish these brave old people

I so agree, I can't think of any other time in history, where a generation suffered so much, and did it without complaining, with their head held high, and changed the world literally.

Bless him, I so hope he is reunited with his Manfred, and they are together again.


I have read many, many books on WW2, gays were horrible treated, as were the roma, communists, and the mentally handicapped, it wasn't only jewish citizens, but a great many people.

[Nova]

Originally Posted by wfgodot

Gad Beck (Telegraph obit)
Gad Beck, who has died aged 88, was a gay Jew in wartime Berlin, placing him in double jeopardy with the Nazi regime.

much more at link above

Who writes The Telegraph, anyway?

The Nazis killed "several thousand" gay people during the Holocaust? Although an exact number is impossible to determine, I believe the accepted figure is about 50,000 gays murdered. A small number compared to six million Jews, but a few more than "several thousand".

Later the article says Beck left Germany for Israel because of increasingly harsh treatment of gay Germans. Harsher than the Nazis? I doubt it.

In any event, I hope Mr. Beck is at peace. He earned it.

(Just to be clear, I couldn't help but point out inaccuracies in the article. I am in no way suggesting that wfgodot shouldn't have linked to it here. As always I very much appreciate and value wfgodot's "window on the world".)