Lev Raphael is the gay son of two Jewish Holocaust survivors, and he wants to bring more attention to the persecution of homosexuals in the Holocaust.
Raphael spoke to students and community members last night in the Catalina Room of the Student Union Memorial Center, focusing on the experience of gays and lesbians in the Holocaust.
His talk also previewed a traveling exhibit from the Holocaust Museum showcasing gays in the Holocaust. The exhibit will hit Tucson in mid-April.
He said many Holocaust survivors keep silent about their experiences, especially gay and lesbian survivors.
"I always wondered what I could do as a writer," he said.
He said there are only a handful of books that deal with the issue and that there is little imaginative literature on the subject.
Raphael read a few pages of his latest book, "The German Money," before taking questions from the audience. The book's characters are three siblings, one who is bisexual, who are struggling with their Jewish identity and how to cope with their recently deceased mother.
Silence is the main theme of his writing, Raphael said. He targets the audience of second-generation survivors, like himself, whose parents survived the Holocaust.
All audience members who asked Raphael a question identified themselves as either second- or third-generation survivors.
Sarah Kader, a senior majoring in Spanish, asked Raphael what third- and fourth-generation survivors can do.
Raphael said many turn to art or teaching, and he emphasized the importance of encouraging survivors to recount their Holocaust stories with organizations like Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.
"I don't want (the accounts) to be lost once the survivors are gone," he said.
Kader said she tries to attend as many Holocaust programs as she can. This one was important to her because of its focus on gays.
"It's important to recognize the variety of people murdered," she said.
Helene Green, an education and Judaic studies freshman, attended the talk because she was curious about seeing a different perspective, she said.
"It opened my eyes to a new side," she said.
Raphael, who is touring across the country, said his message has been well-received. He said he has met a lot of gay and lesbian Holocaust survivors but hears few stories from their family members.
He said writers and historians tend to avoid talking about the persecution of gays because they are afraid of being labeled gay if they do.
But he said the gay experience of the Holocaust is significant. The Nazis tortured about 50,000 gay men, and thousands more worked to death, he said.