The nazi persecution of homosexuals in France and Germany

a comparative perspective from the memories of Pierre Seel and Rudolf Brazda

Abstract

The following article performs a comparative work between the Works ‘Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel’ (2012) and ‘Itinéraire d’um triangle rose’ (2011), which shows the memories of two Pink Triangles, Pierre Seel and Rudolf Brazda, in concentration camps during the Third Reich. Seel, born in Alsace, came into contact with the homosexual subculture during his teenage years in Mulhouse. After a watch theft, his name was added to a local list of homosexuals, which the Nazis would later use to persecute and arrest him. Brazda, a member of a Czechoslovakian family in Meuselwitz, Germany, lived under the relative tolerance of the Weimar Republic, but with the rise of Nazism, he would be condemned under Paragraph 175. Although both testimonies took place in different locations, they retell the same historical event. Therefore, the goal of this work is to explore this dialogue using the Comparative History methodology, as described by D'Assunção Barros.