Josef Kohout

Josef Kohout

He was an Austrian Nazi Concentration Camp Survivor, imprisoned for his Homosexuality best known for the Book: “Die Männer mit dem rosa Winkel” (The Men With the Pink Triangle.)

He was born on January 24, 1915 in Vienna, Austria to were wealthy Catholic Parents. His Father had a high-ranking job in the Civil Service.

On March 12, 1938 Nazi Germany invaded and annexed Austria (the Anschluss) bringing with it its Anti-Jewish Laws and Anti-Homosexual Laws to Austria.

Kohout, aged 24, was arrested in March 1939 when a Christmas Card he had sent to his Male Lover, Fred, was intercepted by the Gestapo. Fred, whose Father was a high-ranking Nazi Official, was deemed "Mentally Disturbed" and escaped punishment.

Kohout was interned in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in January 1940 and given a Pink Triangle.

In Concentration Camps the Nazis used Colored Symbols to quickly Identify Prisoners on their Uniforms (Yellow Stars of David for Jews, Green Triangles for Criminals, Purple Triangles for Jehovah’s Witnesses, Brown Triangles for Gypsies- Roma and Sinti and Pink Triangles for Homosexuals.)

In May 1940, Kohout was transferred from Sachsenhausen to the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, in Bavaria, Germany. On April 22, 1945, he managed to escape from captivity after a Death March of the Prisoners from Flossenbürg to the Dachau Concentration Camp.

He was liberated by the Americans on April 24, 1945.

Kohout’s Parents had written numerous Nazi and SS Officers throughout the War to try and gain their Son’s release, but to no avail. His Father committed Suicide in 1942, but his Mother survived the War,

He is best known for the 1972 book “Die Männer mit dem rosa Winkel” (The Men With the Pink Triangle), The book is one of very few first-hand accounts of the treatment of homosexuals in Nazi Imprisonment. It has been translated into several Languages, and a second edition published in 1994.

It was the first testimony from a Homosexual survivor of the Concentration Camps to be translated into English, and is regarded as the best known.

 Its publication helped to illuminate not just the suffering Gay Prisoners of the Nazi Regime experienced, but the lack of recognition and compensation they received after the war's end.

In 1946 Kohout met his Partner, Wilhelm Kröpfl, with whom he stayed until his death in 1994.

Josef Kohout died in Vienna, Austria on March 15, 1994 at the age of 79.

After his death, Kröpfl, donated some of Kohout's personal details to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, including letters from his Parents that never reached him during his Imprisonment, the piece of cloth with the Pink Triangle and his Prisoner Number, and individual diary fragments.

On June 8, 2010, a small green space on Zimmermannplatz in Vienna's Alsergrund District, where Kohout lived during his lifetime, was named Heinz-Heger-Park in his memory.

Background:

Paragraph 175 (which made it illegal to be Gay, but not a Lesbian) was created in 1871 in Germany.

In 1936, the Nazis expanded Paragraph 175. From 1933-1945 the Nazis arrested 100,000 German and Austrian Men for the suspicion of being Gay.

15,000 of them were sent to Concentration and Death Camps (the rest went to Regular German Prisons) where 60% of them died.

The Nazis also committed Experiments on Gays forcing Gay Men to have intercourse at the Camp Brothel (known as the Lagerbordell where 34,140 Non-Jewish Female Prisoners were forced to be Prostitutes) in order to see if it would “cure” them.

Gay Men were forced to be with these Women while Nazi Doctors watched. The Gay Men were then almost always killed immediately after to be studied. If a Woman became pregnant the Baby was taken to a State Orphanage and the Mother was killed.

Other Experiments on Gays included Castration, Lobotomies and Hyperthermia Tests.

Homosexual Prisoners were forbidden to associate with other Prisoners when not during their Forced Labor: menial tasks such as moving snow and rocks by hand from one side of the camp to the other. They were also subjected to Regular Beatings and Assaults from the SS and the Kapos (Prisoners who the SS put in charge of other Prisoners.)

When World War 2 ended in 1945 Gays continued to be imprisoned since Homosexuality was still illegal. Some went from a Death Camp or a Concentration Camp to a Regular Prison and none received any Survivor Benefits (from West Germany, East Germany or Austria.)

Gay Homosexuality (but not Lesbian Homosexuality) was illegal in the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States so the Allies did not recognize Gays as Victims of the Nazis, but as Regular Criminals.

From 1946-1968 (from when World War 2 ended until it was Decriminalized) West Germany sent 58,361 Homosexuals to Prison.

Homosexuality wasn’t legalized in Germany until 1994. Gay Marriage was legalized in Germany in 2017.

Homosexuality was legalized in Austria in 1971. Gay Marriage was legalized in Austria in 2019.

In 2002, Germany finally annulled the Nazi-Era judgements under Paragraph 175 and in 2017, Victims were offered Compensation (the Annulment and Compensation extended to Men convicted from 1945-1994.)

Each Person convicted under Paragraph 175 received €3,000 Compensation, plus €1,500 for each year spent in Custody as a result of a Conviction.

The Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism opened in Berlin in 2008. Inside is a Video showing 2 Men Kissing. Every 2 Years the Video is changed to show 2 Women kissing.