Kent grad writes historical novel of gay persecution (press about my first book)

On May 16, (at Keillor's A Teddy Bear Shoppe, 117 Canal Street, Canal Fulton, OH 44614) Dale will sign copies of “In God's Silence,” his historical novel that details homosexual persecution during the Holocaust.

• Posted May. 9, 2014 @ 6:00 am 
  
  
  

  Repository staff report

  JACKSON TWP.

  What began as a class assignment for Charles J. Dale has become a compelling new book.

  On May 16, Dale will sign copies of  “In God’s Silence,” his historical novel that details homosexual 

  persecution during the Holocaust.A native of Welshfield, in Geauga County, Dale, 47, graduated 

  in December with full honors from Kent State University’s Stark campus, earning a bachelor’s 

  degree in English. He has been accepted into a two-year creative-writing residency program at 

  Fairfield University in Connecticut.

  
  

  While at Kent, Dale wrote a short story based on Rudolf Brazda, the last-known gay Holocaust survivor,

   who died in 2011 at 98.
  
  

  “I knew a little bit about the topic, but I did not have much time to research being gay during the 

  Holocaust,” he said. “My original story was eight pages.” 

  Dale said his writing professor urged him to do more research, and to write a more-extensive 

  piece as an honors project. “There are less than 10 books on the topic,” he said.

  
  

  PARAGRAPH 175

  The research would stretch to two years. Dale said he searched libraries, online archives at the 

  Untied States Holocaust Memorial Museum, videos, survivor testimonies, and even eBay auctions. 

  The result was a 225-page thesis that became a 344-page book.

  
  

  Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis systematically murdered 11 million Europeans, including 6 million 

  Jews, 1 million children, and thousands of homosexual men, who were classified as “degenerates” and 

  seen as a threat to Germany’s national health.

  
  

  For identification purposes, homosexuals were required to wear pink inverted-triangle patches or 

  “Rosa Winkel” on their clothes, part of an extensive code to identify victims.

  
  

  Up to 100,000 homosexuals were arrested under a German law known as “Paragraph 175.” 

  At least 50,000 were imprisoned, and 10,000 to 15,000 were interned in concentration camps, 

  where more than half died.

  
  

  Paragraph 175 remained a law in Germany until 1969, Dale said.

  Dale said the story, which centers on a young couple and their best friend, is gleaned from factual events.

  “It’s creative nonfiction,” he said. “The thing I want to stress is that, in the forgetting, we’re doomed to 

  repeat the past. In so many ways, it’s still happening.”

  
  

  Dale said that although he’s hopeful because of recent gains made, he points out the persecution and 

  arrests of homosexuals in Africa, in Russia during the Sochi Olympics, and executions of gays in 

  the Middle East. He criticized an attempt to pass a law in Arizona that would have allowed business 

  owners the right to refuse to serve gays, based on religious beliefs.

  
  

  • A SILENT GOD

    “That (law) almost was going to happen here in Ohio,” he said. “There’s also some minority group 

    under the thumb of the bigger guy ... Why do we have to repress somebody all the time?”

    
    

    Dale said the book’s title comes from Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Weisel.

    “A lot of survivors felt like God wasn’t just absent, but silent,” he said. “With all the prayers spoken, 

    they felt that if God had been listening, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened.”

    
    

    Dale said he was 21 when he was ex-communicated from his family’s Southern Baptist Church 

    after revealing that he was gay

    “I told my mother first,” he said. “She was very supportive and said she knew from very early on.”

    His parents later resigned membership from the church.

    Dale said the novel’s message offers universal lessons. He recounted the loss of hundreds of friends 

    and acquaintances as a result of the AIDS virus.

    
    

    “We all have experienced loss and love,” he said. “We all share the human experience. 

    We’ve all experienced racism or bigotry, or we’ve done it. If we have been perpetrators, we can rise 

    above it.”

  
  Read more: http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140509/Lifestyle/140509152#ixzz31E15EXIb 

Read more: http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140509/Lifestyle/140509152#ixzz31E0mj3fu

Read more: http://www.cantonrep.com/article/20140509/Lifestyle/140509152#ixzz31E0Z01Hp