This other thing

A Micro-Theatre Duologue
Inspired by the memories of Heinz Heger,
Pierre Seel, Rudolf Brazda and other gay survivors

by

Armando Rotondi


“Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy. We reject anything that turns our people around and makes our men objects of fun for our enemies”.
(Heinrich Himmler)


The man is sitting in a chair. He stares straight ahead, hands folded on his knees. It is like he is sitting in front of a court during a trial. But he is not a witness. He is THE defendant, a perennial accused who has the chance to speak but who already knows he will be found guilty.


MAN: (Cold) What else could I have done?
They sent me to Dachau, without taking me to any trial.
Our work there was as follows: in the morning we had to transport the snow in front of our block from the left side of the road to the right side. (Pause) In the afternoon we had to bring the same snow from the right to the left side. We could not do the job using wheelbarrows and shovels, because it would have been too easy for us “fags”.(Pause) No, the SS had a better idea: we had to wear our coat upside down, fastening it on the back. In this way, we should have pulled up the edges and carried the snow on our lap. All this with bare hands, of course. No gloves.

“Whoever practices homosexuality deprives Germany of children the Stare needs. Our homeland is dismantled because of this scourge”.
(Heinrich Himmler)

MAN: What else could I have done?
The pink triangles were larger than the others by about two or three centimetres. Quite a lot, if we think about it. We had to be recognizable as “fags” even from far away. (Pause)
The Jews.
The gypsies.
The homosexuals.
A yellow triangle.
A brown triangle.
A pink tringle.
More and more often the victims of the torture of the SS and kapos. (Pause)
Yellow triangle, brown triangle, pink triangle.
Called the dregs of humanity. They were told that they had no right to live on German soil and that they had to be exterminated: these were the words that the Lagerkommandant and his helpers often repeated.
But by far the most filthy scum were us, the men in pink.
“ There are those homosexuals who take the view: what I do is my business, a purely private matter. However, all things which take place in the sexual sphere are not the private affair of the individual, but signify the life and death of the nation. The people which has many children has the candidature for world power and world domination. A people of good race which has too few children has a one-way ticket to the grave”
(Heinrich Himmler)

MAN: What else could I have done?
We could not exchange a single word with the prisoners of the other blocks and with the ones wearing other triangles. Of course we couldn’t. It is important – they told us – to avoid any contact. We could mislead them, inducing them to homosexual practices. (Pause)
We were forbidden to be within five meters. Those who were caught were beaten fifteen to twenty times. We had to remain isolated. We were destined to be the most damned among the damned, the so-called homosexual scum of the lager

“We must exterminate all these people, every homosexual, extinguishing them completely.
We cannot expose the country to such a danger”
(Heinrich Himmler)
.
MAN: What else could I have done?
I was tortured, beaten, sodomized and raped! They stuck me a 25cm piece of wood. My ass is still bleeding. (Pause)
All those who were sentenced to death were hoisted with a noose. The screams did not sound human. They were beyond any understanding.

“Homosexuals must be completely eliminated”.
(Heinrich Himmler)

MAN: (Cold as at the beginning) What else could I have done?
They sent me to Dachau, without taking me to any trial.
And, after, no one ever wanted to talk about this other thing.