1. Rudolf Brazda was the last known concentration camp survivor deported by Nazi Germany on charges of homosexuality.
20 Facts About Rudolf Brazda
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Rudolf Brazda was born in Brossen, the last of eight siblings, born to parents originating in Bohemia and who had emigrated to Saxony to earn a living.
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Rudolf Brazda grew up in Brossen, later in nearby Meuselwitz where he started training as a roofer, failing to get an apprenticeship as a sales assistant with a gentlemen's outfitter.
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In 1936, Werner was enlisted to do his military service and Rudolf Brazda took up a position as bellhop at a hotel in Leipzig.
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Unfortunately, Rudolf Brazda's name came up again in police enquiries led against distant gay acquaintances.
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Rudolf Brazda was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp on 8 August 1942 and remained there until its liberation, on 11 April 1945.
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Rudolf Brazda was prisoner number 7952 and started with forced labour at the stone quarry, prior to being posted to a lighter task in the quarry's infirmary.
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On many occasions, Rudolf Brazda was a witness of Nazi cruelty towards homosexuals as well as other detainees, aware of the fate awaiting a lot of them at the camp's revier: it was not uncommon for sick or disabled prisoners to be executed by lethal injection at the sick bay.
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Rudolf Brazda decided to settle in southern Alsace and started visiting local gay cruising grounds, noticeably the Steinbach public garden where Pierre Seel, another homosexual deportee, had been identified by the French police shortly before the outbreak of World War II.
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Rudolf Brazda tended to Edi for over 30 years after Edi was crippled by a severe work accident, until his death in 2003.
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Rudolf Brazda subsequently was invited to attend a number of gay events, including Europride Zurich in 2009 and some smaller scaled events in France, Switzerland and Germany.
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In 2010, Rudolf Brazda took part in Mulhouse in the unveiling of a plaque in memory of Pierre Seel and others who were deported because of their homosexuality and was a guest of honour at a remembrance ceremony at Buchenwald.
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On Saturday 25 September 2010, Rudolf Brazda was symbolically present on the site of the former Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp on the occasion of a plaque unveiling ceremony.
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In 2010, Rudolf Brazda received the gold medals of the cities of Toulouse and Nancy in recognition of his commitment to bear witness locally and nationally in France.
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Rudolf Brazda was determined to continue speaking out about his past, in the hope that younger generations remain vigilant in the face of present-day behaviour and thought patterns similar to those which led to the persecutions endured by homosexuals during the Nazi era.
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In recognition of his numerous contributions to public debates, media interviews and research articles, nationally and internationally, not least his involvement in a citizens group promoting awareness of homosexual deportation in France, Rudolf Brazda was appointed Knight in the National order of the Legion of Honour, in the 2011 Easter honours list.
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Rudolf Brazda received his Knight insignia four days later from Marie-Jose Chombart de Lauwe, president of the French Foundation for the Remembrance of Deportation, in Puteaux, in the presence, among others, of Raymond Aubrac, a well-known French Resistance figure.
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Rudolf Brazda died on 3 August 2011, at the age of 98, at Les Molenes, an assisted living facility in the town of Bantzenheim in northeastern France.
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Rudolf Brazda's funeral was held on 8 August 2011 in Mulhouse, France.
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Obituaries of Rudolf Brazda appeared in publications and on websites worldwide.