LGBT community members who faced an unimaginable collective tragedy gathered at Center on Halsted June 3 to remember queer victims of the Holocaust. Survivor Magda Brown of Skokie headlined "Remembering The Pink Triangle: Commemorating the Homosexual Victims of Nazism."
"I share my story on a daily basis for many reasons," Brown, an 87-year-old Hungarian Jewish woman, said before her speech.
Teaching young people about the effects of bigotry and discrimination is among her motivations. Having spent about a year in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, Brown marveled at attending the event.
"It is immense progress in our wonderful, free society to remember the wonderful homosexual," she said.
Brown is a member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center Speakers Bureau.
The event also featured the dedication of The Legacy Project's newest addition—a "Pink Triangle" plaque. Victor Salvo, the project's founder, presided over the dedication.
In concentration camps, queer Holocaust victims were forced to wear pink triangles. At the event, Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov stressed the importance of this action.
"We have an obligation to remember our own history," Cherkasov said, adding, "There are no known living [gay] survivors."
Recalling the past was the theme of Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann's religious reflection. "Remembering is a spiritual practice," Heydemann said. "May their memories be blessings."
Stanley Jenczyk, an American Veterans for Equal Rights member, shared his insights. Jenczyk was born in a German workers' camp in 1944. His was mother was killed in 1946. A Polish couple adopted Jenczyk and moved to the Back of the Yards in 1951.
"We should never forget our brothers and sisters who gone before us," he said. "Please never forget all of those who were murdered in World War II."
Brown, when she came before the audience, delivered a stark message—based on experience.
"There's nothing worse than losing your freedom," she said.
Although her home country had anti-Jewish laws since the 1920s, Brown said Hungarians "were relatively comfortable, at first." Initially, she said the Nazis had two separate missions. One of them, of course, was executing the Final Solution. Brown said they invaded Hungary, since the country hadn't moved fast enough.
"[The Holocaust was] a premeditated, scientifically-coordinated mass murder," she said.
By 1940, Hungarian Jewish men were banned from military service. Instead, they were forced to join labor camps. Other things, like graffiti, helped begin dehumanizing people.
"It's such a brainwashing mechanism," Brown said.
The Nazis, she said, came into Hungary in March 1944. That's when Brown recalled that police stopped protecting her and her family. In May 1944, Hungarians were told to pack overnight bags with enough necessities to last three or four days, in order to travel to another country for work.
Brown said, then, the Nazis uttered the biggest lie…families would stay together. She recalled when her and her family joined 80 other people on a train on June 11, 1944. The day was memorable for more than one reason.
It was Brown's 17th birthday—in the midst of a three-day trek that included no food or water.
"Nobody on Earth should experience what thirst really is," Brown said. "Your mouth is dry. Your lips are parched. From this point, we [were] not human beings."
Once off the train, hundreds were gathered and forced to stand five abreast. Brown remembered the wooden-soled flip-flops she was forced to wear. She also remembered that the Nazis incessantly counted them. They flanked sick people and held them up to be counted.
"Protect your freedom, because we are so blessed," Brown said. "They keep saying the Holocaust isn't true. Unfortunately, I can prove it [is true]." She lost her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins to the Holocaust.
Salvo stressed what inspires him to keep LGBT history alive.
"If something is honored and respected in society, gay people will be excluded," he said. "Because, somehow, homosexuality will be validated by association."
Open Hand Grocery Center Founder Lori Cannon stressed why this event was important.
"Most of us have barely survived our own Holocaust," Cannon said, referring to the AIDS epidemic. "It's important to recognize what catastrophic [events] came before."
Cannon founded the Open Hand Grocery Center, which has served those living with HIV and AIDS for more than 30 years.
"It's important to be educated, re-educated and reminded," she said.
Equality Illinois, Unisilence Project and Center on Halsted sponsored the event. More of Brown's story and speeches are featured at her website, www.magdabrown.com .
