The Nazi Era: Episode 7: Gad Beck

Making Gay History | LGBTQ Oral Histories from the Archive

Making Gay History

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4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

After the 1942 deportation of his boyfriend, 19-year-old Jewish Berliner Gad Beck vowed to help others escape the same fate. He became a prominent resistance member and used his resourcefulness, sexual barter, and chutzpah to save fellow Jews from the Nazi murder machine. 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-50.030.0361, oral history interview with Gad Beck, 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	I'm Making Gay History Family. Eric here. Thank you to all of you who helped us match the recent $25,000 challenge grant we were lucky to be offered. We couldn't have done it without you. But we are scrambling. Like many organizations, we've been affected by the new administration. We recently lost a major grant from one of our funding partners
0:23.6	who've had to redirect their resources in response to the new regime.
0:27.6	So, while I've just finished asking you for financial support,
0:31.6	here I am asking again.
0:33.6	Any amount is appreciated, so we can keep bringing LGBTQ history to life through the voices of the people who lived it.
0:40.7	That's all the people who lived it.
0:44.5	You can make a tax-deductible donation at making gayhistory.org slash donate.
0:49.4	That's making gay history.org slash donate.
0:53.3	Thanks so much.
0:55.0	When my twin sister was born, she slipped right out of mother, happy and fat and round.
1:13.1	Nothing else came out.
1:15.3	The midwife said, listen, Mr. Beck, something's wrong.
1:19.4	The afterbirth didn't come out.
1:21.1	Your wife has a fever.
1:22.7	You have to get the doctor.
1:24.5	The doctor bent over and looked inside.
1:27.2	Oh my God, he said. There's something else in there.
1:31.3	This something else was me. He pulled me out onto the table and I was blue. The doctor said calmly,
1:41.1	Mr. Beck, you have a daughter. Your wife is recovering. You'll be okay, right?
1:47.0	He'd written me off.
1:49.0	I was this little blue worm lying on the table, but the midwife held me up like a rabbit and smacked me on the behind.
1:56.0	I cried. I was alive!
	...

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