Bertram Schaffner’s story is a unique one because of the multiple roles he played as a gay German American during the period that saw the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II.

Gerhard “Gad” Beck was born on June 30, 1923, in Berlin, along with his twin sister Margot (Miriam). His birth came as a surprise to everyone including the doctor, who had left after Margot was born thinking that the job was already done. The midwife had to call him back when Beck’s mother became feverish, and Gad was born.

Stefan (Teofil) Kosinski’s testimony is the only English-language testimony we have in the Visual History Archive from a homosexual survivor, which is also remarkable for the fact that Stefan is not a native English speaker. A New Year’s baby, Stefan was born on January 1, 1925, in the city of Torún, Poland. His father and mother both had studied German in school and would use it as a secret language to speak with each other in front of the children, which frustrated Stefan.

The Holocaust collection in USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive contains over 59,702 testimonies; however, only a mere six of those testimonies are from survivors who were persecuted by the Nazis for being gay: one in English, three in German, one in French, and one in Dutch. There are other gay survivors we have in the Archive, but they were persecuted by the Nazis for the greater sin of being Jewish; Gad Beck being one of them.