About a book

Jozef

Heriban

Pink Triangle

Original title: Ružový trojuholník

Genre: novel

Slovak edition: HERIAL

CONTENT

Jozef Heriban's novel touches on the sensitive topic of homosexuality. The story of the five main ​characters merges into an exciting story of passionate love, devastating jealousy, and perverse ​betrayal. It also reveals the secret genocide of gays during the Second World War.


REVIEWS


“This allowed the author to introduce readers to a world that they usually know ​only from the headlines of tabloid magazines - the world of would-be celebrities ​who will do anything for their five minutes of fame, the hyenism of some ​journalists, but also the superficiality of relationships and the relativity of ​friendships (not only) in the homosexual community. From every line you can feel ​that the author knows this world well and does not hesitate to tear its gold leaf ​to reveal the dirt it hides.”


Martin Kasarda, SME


“As we are used to with Heriban, the story is provocative, full of emotions, love, ​tenderness, bold eroticism. However, sex in the book is not an end in itself. It is ​not just an empty gesture to entice readers. Sex comes naturally to his stories; ​he is not afraid to shamelessly call things by their real names.”


Milan Bruno



EXTRACT


In the briefcase were old, yellowed photographs of Richard Steuer, my grandfather. A black notebook with yellowed pages ​and a piece of prison uniform with a pink triangle.

I was sitting on the sofa in our apartment. Filip had a meeting. He said he would come at night. I was looking at the ​face of a young black-haired man in his thirties who was smiling into the lens. In one of the photos, he was standing ​with a young, slim blonde, leaning on a bicycle. I knew that woman. She was my grandmother, Elizabeth Steuer Wasserman.

I opened a black notebook bound with dark blue tape. Some of the leaves were crumpled and, in some places, the German ​handwriting was illegible.

23 February 1941 Buchenwald

We had beetroot soup for lunch. Two rotten potatoes were floating in it. We also received some porridge that could not be ​identified and a piece of black bread. I'm still hungry. I feel myself losing energy every day.

It is said that those who are dragged from the barracks will be castrated. They say they are experimenting on them.

I began to pray. I, who never believed in God, now pray every day. And God no longer exists.

I look at the night sky through the barred window. Today, it doesn't matter what the meaning of our life is. We are not ​human anymore. We're just scared test animals!

My stomach clenched. I was looking at the neat handwriting of a man I knew nothing about until now. I turned a few more ​yellowed pages.

Richard Steuer was arrested by the Gestapo at the end of November 1940. His fake wedding with his longtime girlfriend ​Elizabeth Wasserman didn't help either. It didn't help that they were expecting a child together. Someone reported him. ​Maybe someone from their gay community. He never found out who it was. Neither he nor Elizabeth.

Ely, as her friends called her, was a lesbian. She worked at the office for social affairs as a secretary. When the ​Gestapo took her husband away at night, she returned to her mother's small apartment in the center of Munich. She was ​scared. She was terribly afraid that she too would be taken to a concentration camp. Fortunately, that didn't happen. All ​the time she believed that her man would return home.









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