Book Review: The Lilac People

We learn very little in our history classes about the other groups of people Hitler sent to his camps. This book focuses on the queer community and specifically the transgender community. Here are just some of the things I learned from this book.

The Institute of Sexual Science had extensive research and information on a variety of topics. They were educating people about gender and sexuality. Eventually it was all destroyed by the Nazis. All of that research, progress and educational materials were lost.

After the Allies liberated the camps, certain groups, specifically those with pink triangles, were not released but re-incarcerated by the Allied-established government. They continued to criminalize homosexuality. Can you image what it must have felt like to see the Nazis defeated, to believe you were going to be free again, only to get re-arrested for a law that was created out of ignorance?

I also learned that many of the German people - both civilians and captured soldiers were forced to work in labor camps as part of reparations. I had no idea this had happened. This book really hits on this scenario of regular people who were just trying to survive the war - they did not agree with the Nazis but they knew what was happening and maybe felt like they could do nothing. Yet after the war, they were punished by the Allied-established government for being complicit.

It was hard not to draw parallels to what's happening in the US today. We see these awful things happening to people. Are we standing up against the injustices or turning a blind eye? Do we risk becoming complicit by doing nothing? What can we do when it feels like we can't do anything?

Finally, the book touched on the fact that the American government actively recruited Nazis to come to America. I think I knew a little bit about this, but this book brought it back to my attention. It also talked about how America largely stayed out of the war until we were attacked. That we likely knew what Hitler was doing, but "turned a blind eye". We know that America turned away refugees fleeing from Europe, only to send them back to the horrors they tried to escape.

When America is finally forced to enter the war, we're taught that we're the hero's of the story. But were we? The actual history is much more complicated than we're ever taught.

The world is full of injustices. And it can become very easy to get lost in that sea of despair. Below were some quotes that really hit me.

"When people hurt bad enough, they'll grab any idea to make their own lives better, no matter how illogical."

"They're pandering to the people who were already hateful and looking for reason and protection to be so."

We see this happening in America now. People being told to hate someone else just because of who they are as a person and have no control over. People thinking that if someone else is being punished for their "crimes" it will somehow make their own lives better, even when there is no connection between the two. 

“A country is only as strong as its most vulnerable people. And you, son, if you may forgive me for saying, are on the lowest rung of the ladder. You’re a canary, Bertie. Transvestites are the canaries of the world. You know from our own library that bad people always go after transvestites first, no matter the country or culture. They are the first ones removed when an environment turns poisonous. What makes it more worrisome is you represent everything. You represent housing and job security and access to healthcare. You represent workers’ rights and voting rights and full stomachs and freedom. And perhaps most importantly of all, you represent the right to body and personhood. You represent a country not owning you, not using you however benefits a select few at the top. You represent a country of a people, not a country of the dominant. If transvestites are under attack, then the whole of the country is on the brink of destruction. If transvestites are cared for, the rest of us are cared for. You touch everything a strong society has to offer. We could work, we could eat, we could be healthy, we could live in safe homes, we could decline to fight in unnecessary wars. Our country would be honest. We would no longer be tricked. Our country would take care of us and we, in turn, would take care of our country. So as long as transvestites are okay, we know society is, too. That’s why I’m here for you. Because I love my country.”

“What I’m saying is, don’t regard me too heroically. I care about you because I care about everyone. Nothing I’m doing here is noble or generous. It’s simply common sense. It’s simply humanity. No person should encourage the suffering of another. There’s already too much given by nature. And when a person encourages the suffering of another, you can bet they won’t stop there. They want to see it because they hope it will fill the emptiness inside themselves, but it won’t, because it never does, and so they’ll look for the next one, and the next one, and the one after that.”

These two quotes really drive home the idea that if we were to truly care about everyone, about each other, if we were to take care of each other, then everyone would do better. Instead of letting a small group of people telling us that we shouldn't be helping our neighbor, what if we did exactly that? That like Paul Wellstone famously said "We all do better when we all do better."

We have the power to do better, be better. "No person should encourage the suffering of another. There's already too much given by nature." 

So as exhausting as the world can be, injustices all around us, we can still make good choices. We can still choose to be kind, to choose love over hate. And if enough of us continue to make these choices over and over, we can make a difference.