Last known gay Jewish Holocaust survivor dies

The last known gay Jewish survivor of the Nazi atrocities died this week. He was 88.

Gad Beck, who was a resistance fighter during World War II, passed away in Berlin just days before his 89th birthday.

According to The Advocate, Beck, the son of a Jewish father and mother who converted to Judaism, joined an underground resistance movement and worked to save gay and Jewish Germans.

Shortly before the end of World War II, Beck was betrayed by a Gestapo spy. He was taken to a German concentration camp, but was freed when the Nazis were defeated by the Allies.

Beck moved to Israel in the 1950s but returned to Germany in 1979, where he became active in gay and Jewish life. He was hailed as a "bold campaigner for gay rights when homosexuality was still illegal."

His story was immortalized in the film "The Life of Gad Beck" and the documentary "Paragraph 175."

Beck is survived by his partner of 35 years, Julius Laufer.