Rudolf Brazda and Paragraph 175: the fight of a homosexual prisoner in concentration camps

Abstract

This article present the experiences of Prisoner of War Rudolf Brazda, who was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany as a homosexual. The early twentieth century, embraced by the conception of eugenics movements - influenced by social Darwinism and considered as science - allowed for segregation, racist, homophobic events and gave broad power to the development of prejudiced policies, making condemnations arbitrary. In this context, Brazda had his civil liberty violated by Hitler's totalitarian regime, relying on Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code, which condemned male homosexuality and bestiality in the spectrum of lusty convictions, liable to condemnation and retreat of citizenship, even to remain detained for 32 months in an environment of exposure of the totalitarian ideals propagated by the German government. Finally, addressing the biography of Brazda, it is intended to expose possible advances in international policy for the defense of human rights, with the emergence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proposed by the UN, which aims to maintain peace and adjust essential guarantees and duties for the preservation of individuals and diplomatic recognition of their dignity.