People Without History Are Dust

2025 Winner of the Holocaust Category of the 75th National Jewish Book Awards. Queerness remains one of the most stigmatized and overlooked aspects of Holocaust history, often erased due to the lingering homophobia of survivors. People Without History Are Dust challenges this silence, weaving together compelling stories of German, Dutch, Czech, and Polish Jewish Holocaust victims and survivors – including Anne Frank, Molly Applebaum, Margot Heuman, and Gad Beck – whose experiences help illuminate the hidden history of queerness in a time of genocide. Drawing on extensive archival research, this groundbreaking book uncovers the lives of those who were doubly marginalized, not only persecuted as Jews but also as queer individuals. In doing so, it confronts the ways in which history has excluded or minimized their experiences, urging us to question normative accounts of the Holocaust. By shedding light on these long-overlooked stories, People Without History Are Dust deepens our understanding of identity, survival, and memory, reminding us why an inclusive and complex approach to history is essential – not just for the sake of the past, but in service to the present and the future as well.

Anna Hájková is a reader of history at the University of Warwick.

List of Illustrations Foreword Jennifer Evans Preface 1. Towards a Queer History of the Holocaust The Queer Archival Gap Homophobia Gad Beck Queer Desire in Theresienstadt Conclusion 2. People without History Are Dust Margot Heuman Queer Kinship Nate Leipciger Anne Frank Molly Applebaum Jiří Vrba Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index