Letter to the Commandant of Flossenbürg Camp Inquiring about Josef Kohout

On December 28, 1943, Josef Kohout's mother wrote a letter to the commandant of the Flossenbürg concentration camp. She asked to visit her son, a gay man, who was imprisoned in the camp as a "homosexual" prisoner. The request was denied. 

Kohout was imprisoned in Flossenbürg since 1940. His parents inquired about their son repeatedly and wrote to the Flossenbürg commandant throughout Kohout's incarceration. After his father passed away, Josef's mother continued to sign both of their names to her requests. 

Josef Kohout was liberated while on a death march from Flossenbürg to the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945. In 1972, author Hans Neumann (pseudonym Heinz Heger) published a book about Kohout's experiences. The book was titled The Men with the Pink Triangle. Neither the author's nor Josef's real names were published in order to protect them from ongoing discrimination against gay people during that time.