Gad Beck
Gad Beck | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 24 June 2012 | (aged 88)
Citizenship | German |
Occupation(s) | Educator, activist, author |
Years active | 1947–2012 |
Known for | An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin |
Partner(s) | Julius Laufer[1] (1977–2012; Beck's death) |
Family | Margot Beck (twin sister) |
Gerhard "Gad" Beck (30 June 1923 – 24 June 2012)
Life and career
Gad Beck was born Gerhard Beck
As a person of partial Jewish ancestry (a Mischling in Nazi terminology), Beck was not deported with other German Jews. Instead, he remained in Berlin.[6] He recalls in his autobiography borrowing a neighbor's Hitler Youth uniform[7] and marching in 1942[8] into the pre-deportation camp where his lover, Manfred Lewin, had been arrested and detained. He asked the commanding officer for the young man's release for use in a construction project, and it was granted. When outside the building, however, Lewin declined, saying, "Gad, I can't go with you. My family needs me. If I abandon them now, I could never be free."[9] With that, the two parted without saying goodbye. "In those seconds, watching him go," Gad recalls, "I grew up."[4] Lewin and his entire family were murdered at Auschwitz.[10]
Gad Beck joined an underground effort to supply food and hiding places to Jews escaping to neutral Switzerland. In early 1945, a Jewish spy for the Gestapo betrayed him and some of his underground friends. He was subsequently interrogated and interned in a Jewish transit camp in Berlin.[6] His parents and sister did survive the war, thanks to help from their Christian relatives on his mother's side.[11]
After World War II, Beck helped organize efforts to enable Jewish survivors to emigrate to Israel, emigrating himself in 1947.[12]
In the late 1970s, Beck met Julius Laufer. Eventually Laufer joined him in Israel, and the two were together for 35 years.[11]
Beck returned to Berlin in 1979[6] where he was the director of the Jewish Adult Education Center in Berlin.[12]
In 2000, Beck was featured, along with a few other gay Holocaust survivors, in the HBO documentary film Paragraph 175 in which he remembers his "great, great love" lost to the Nazis.[9][13] Also in 2000, the English translation of Beck's 1995 autobiography, An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin, was published, leading to a successful book tour through the United States.[4]
A documentary film on his life was proposed but never released.[14]
Beck passed away from kidney failure at age 88, survived by his partner Laufer.[12]
Death
Beck died on 24 June 2012, in a Berlin retirement home at the age of 88.[15]
See also
- German Jews
- Homosexuality in Germany
- Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
- Pierre Seel
- Albrecht Becker
- Heinz Dörmer
- Karl Gorath
- Wilhelm Heckmann
- Kurt von Ruffin
- Friedrich-Paul von Groszheim
References
- ^ Broverman, Neal (25 June 2012). "Activist, Leader, and Inspiration, Gad Beck, Dies Just Short of 89". Advocate.com. Retrieved 27 June 2012.
- ^ Weinthal, Benjamin (13 June 2012). "Last gay Jewish Holocaust s... JPost – Jewish World – Jewish News". Jpost.com. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
- ISBN 9783631582237. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ a b c Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (6 December 1999), "Books of the Times; Surviving in Germany, the Wrong Type at the Wrong Time", The New York Times, retrieved 23 October 2009
- ISBN 9780299165048. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ a b c d "Gad Beck". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Museum. Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
- ^ Burnett, Richard. "Remembering Gad Beck". Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- ^ "Gad Beck". The Telegraph. 19 July 2012.
- ^ Daily News. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- ^ "Do you remember when". USHMM. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012.
- ^ a b "FDD | Gad Beck, the Last Gay Holocaust Survivor, is Dead". 5 July 2012.
- ^ a b c "Under the Shadow of Paragraph 175: Part 3: Gad Beck".
- ^ Rothaus, Steve (16 November 2001). "Gay man still mourns lover killed by Nazis". Miami Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
- ^ Meza, Ed; Jaafar, Ali (9 February 2008). "Eytan Fox, Filme pair for war project". Variety. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
- ^ Last gay Jewish Holocaust survivor dies, by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post, 25 June 2012