Gaps in Remembrance – Queer Biographies during National Socialism
Queer survivors of Nazi persecution could not speak openly about their experiences for decades. This German audio piece is a search for clues.
2 April 2025
By Kio Weck
This audio piece was originally published on freie-radios.net
The In Halle, only a single stumbling stone commemorates the persecution of queer people during National Socialism – that of Kurt Koch. He was a worker, survived four concentration camps, and returned to Halle after liberation. After a brief heterosexual marriage shortly after the end of the war, he died in his hometown in the mid-1970s. Little is known about his life, and no photo of him could be found.
The case of Kurt Koch is representative of countless invisible and forgotten biographies of queer people. Their persecution was not recognised for a long time, and survivors were unable to speak openly about their experiences due to ongoing state oppression. Here is a search for clues.
The author thanks Radyo Modyan in Istanbul for the use of their studio.
The audio piece is available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.
Lücken im Gedenken - über queere Biographien im Nationalsozialismus
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