The Nazi Era: Episode 4: Stefan Kosinski

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

Making Gay History

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4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Polish teenager Stefan Kosinski was beaten, tortured, and sent to prison. His crime? He fell in love with a Viennese soldier serving in the German army. When the soldier was sent to the Eastern Front, Stefan sent him a love letter, which was intercepted by the Nazis. Visit our episode webpage for additional resources, archival photos, and a transcript of the episode. For exclusive Making Gay History bonus content, join our Patreon community. ——— RG-50.030.0355, oral history interview with Teofil (Stefan) Kosinski, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C. For more information about the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, go here. ——— To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Making Gay History family.
0:05.0	Eric here.
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0:48.5	Please go to making gayhistory.org slash donate.
0:51.6	That's makingayhistory.org slash donate. Thanks so much. Can you tell us your name and where you
1:03.7	come from and when you were born? Yes, I do this. I'm, my name is Theofiel Kosinski, Polish, but for American, should be maybe a little difficult
1:15.6	to pronounce Kozynski. So it's better I say, Teofil Kosinski. I was born in Poland, in Torum, this is Polish name, and in German was Thorn. This is more in North Poland.
1:30.3	My father was working on the railroad
1:34.3	and my mother, she works from time to time
1:38.3	cleaning some houses.
1:41.3	We were together five children and my mother and my father.
1:47.0	The I'm Eric Marcus, and this is Making Gay History, the Nazi era.
2:10.6	Teo Phil Kosinski, also known as Stefan, was born into a Catholic family in northern Poland in 1925.
2:20.3	His parents rented out rooms in their small house so they could feed their five children.
	...

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