The Allied powers freed German concentration camps in 1945 — except for queer and trans prisoners. Survivors with pink or black triangles on their uniforms suffered the injustice of further imprisonment because the Allies upheld the Nazis’ harsher anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Author, educator and former Massachusetts Cultural Council fellow Milo Todd couldn’t believe this piece of history when he learned about it in 2016. But after he confirmed the truth and dove deeper into research, this period of queer and trans history became the foundation for Todd’s debut novel “The Lilac People.”

Told in dual timelines, “The Lilac People” is a story about the survival, resilience and enduring hope of two trans men and one queer woman before and after World War II. The novel opens two weeks after Germany surrendered with protagonist Bertie and his life partner Sofie finding Karl, an emaciated man who escaped the Dachau concentration camp fleeing from the Allies — not the Nazis. This news is an obscene betrayal of the country’s hard-won prewar LGBTQ+ rights.

In 1932, Bertie lives openly as a transmasculine Berliner. He carries a license to wear men’s clothes in public and he stumbles into a meet-cute with Sofie at the world-famous Eldorado, one of the city’s many LGBTQ+-friendly jazz clubs. Now, caught between accusations of Nazi sympathy or their real identities being discovered, Bertie, Sofie and Karl must steal away on the last boat to America before the borders close or risk certain punishment by Ally soldiers.

With a deftness that leaves readers on a knife’s edge, Todd cascades these two plots until they crash together in the devastating middle. But “The Lilac People” carefully avoids becoming an onslaught of trauma without reprieve. Todd carves out moments of trans joy and queer happiness for Bertie to defiantly hold onto while atrocities attempt to break his spirit.
Book burnings and LGBTQ+ history

Bertie may be fictional but Todd rooted the character’s experiences in real-world settings and historical events. “With something so big like the Holocaust, people sadly become a statistic,” says Todd. “I wanted to make this history more accessible in the form of fiction, in a more personalized narrative.”

The LGBTQ+ community was steadily gaining public acceptance under the Weimar Republic thanks to Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institute of Sexual Science — Bertie’s workplace in the prewar plotline. The real Hirschfeld is largely considered one of the pillars of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Publishing groundbreaking research about transgender identities in 1910 and homosexuality in 1914, he was one of the first doctors in Western history to recognize sexuality and gender identity as separate, distinct orientations. Founded in 1919, the Institute of Sexual Science quickly became internationally renowned for its scientific study, public education and advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community, sexual health and inclusive medical treatment, including the world’s first recorded gender-affirming surgeries.

But LGBTQ+ civil rights ricocheted from progressive to deadly under the Nazis’ ascent to power. Hitler even called Hirschfeld “the most dangerous Jew in Germany.”

It’s difficult to understate the profound loss of LGBTQ+ history as a direct result of Nazi book burnings. On May 6, 1933, more than 100 students targeted the Institute for Sexual Science’s library for one of the first demonstrations. The collection contained 35,000 photographs, thousands of personal clinical files, and over 20,000 books and journals by and about queer and transgender people from around the world — many of which were rare or the only known surviving copies.

“History books around the world would use the footage of the ‘cleansing by fire’ night to discuss censorship and fascism,” Todd says. “But the captions, quite ironically, never mentioned what exactly was being censored and burned.”

Today, a book burning or digital purge couldn’t permanently erase decades of research like the destruction of the Institute for Sexual Science’s library did. But the U.S. is currently seeing a related trend — a sharp increase in book bans, many of which object to trans and queer content. The American Library Association reported that 2,452 unique titles were challenged in 2024 compared to the annual average of 273 unique titles in the years between 2001–2020.

“The censorship of books and media is step one for removing people from society,” Todd says, speaking of the historical pattern that occurs when a society starts to dehumanize a certain demographic.

“Art can open up people’s minds, give them another perspective,” Todd says. “It’s a good combat against fascism. It reflects the well-being of a society to invent and grow and make things. This is why it’s the first thing authoritarian regimes try to take out.”

“The Lilac People” includes some meta commentary about the public treatment of the transgender community as a benchmark of a society’s health. In “The Lilac People,” the character Magnus Hirschfeld says, “A country is only as strong as its most vulnerable people…Bad people always go after [trans people] first, no matter the country or culture.”

The real Hirschfeld advocated to repeal Germany’s laws that criminalized homosexual acts as early as 1897 (when sexuality and gender nonconformity were widely conflated), gaining support from Albert Einstein and thousands of others. But Todd says, “the reality is that Hirschfeld was a complicated sexologist,” noting Hirschfeld’s “messy and tangled relationship to racism, misogyny, and eugenics” explored in historian Laurie Marhoefer’s research and book “Racism and the Making of Gay Rights.”

Todd’s own research inspired him to start teaching courses on trans history, treatment and public perception. What started as standalone classes eventually culminated in a 13-week curriculum Todd taught at Tufts University’s Experimental College this spring called “Transcestors: Trans History, Narrative & Influence.” Todd also centers his fellow trans and queer community in his creative writing courses at GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing, MetroWest Writers’ Guild, Lambda Literary and elsewhere. (Note: This writer has taken writing classes from Todd at GrubStreet.)
The power of queer community

There came a point in Todd’s historical research when he planned to go to Berlin to translate surviving primary source materials into English. But when that 2020 trip was inevitably cancelled due to the pandemic, he turned to research scholars like Ralf Dose at the Magnus Hirschfeld Society. “It was this beautiful moment of queers helping queers — something we’ve done all throughout history,” Todd says.

This message is infused into “The Lilac People,” a love letter to the queer community past, present and future.

“One of the reasons I kept with the book even though it was difficult was because I was honoring and remembering all these nameless faceless people who lived their lives as best they could,” Todd says. “We have the things that we have today because of the gender nonconforming people before us. I’m thinking about how thrilled they would be if they could see where we are now. And how proud they’d be of us for fighting the good fight now.”

Todd coined the catchphrase, “The ghosts of history are watching, kissing our foreheads.” He also points out how the LGBTQ+ communities of today will become the historical stalwarts of tomorrow.

“One day, there will be future generations looking back on us,” Todd says. “We may be nameless and faceless, but they will think ‘I have what I have now because of you.’”

EXCELLENT. This is probably one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys historical fiction, especially WWII, and wants to know more about what LGBTQIA people experienced during and after the war.

This book teaches you what it means to be human.

I'm in awe of Todd's masterful storytelling and prose. I could not put down this book! I'm the type of person that's asleep by 9:30 pm. Last night, I was reading until 2 am. I was a zombie today, but it was so worth it.

I enjoyed (though I'm not sure if that is the right word) learning more about the aftermath of WW2 and the discrimination and cruelty queer and trans folx faced. I liked that Todd gave us a lot of history, but there were also some things that I had to look up because I wanted more.

I will absolutely be assigning this in my queer lit course!

I requested this book from NetGalley so I could better moderate a discussion of it on our BookBrowse Community Forum. It wasn't a featured book for us so I don't have a full review for you.

It was, nevertheless, one of the best historical fiction novels I've read in a long time. After all the WWII literature I've encountered over the decades, it's always a surprise to me when I encounter one that has the power to educate me. While I knew the Nazis had rounded up members of the third sex and sent them to concentration camps (thanks to the incredible play, BENT), I didn't know about the advances people had made before the Nazis took over, and I didn't know how awful allied troops were to this population after "liberating" the survivors.

I was also impressed that the author's characters were so complex and that they avoided easy answers and happily-ever-after endings. It was, all-in-all, a pretty amazing work.

If I could give this book 100 stars I would! The Lilac People was well written with a good mix of hope and love to balance out the heavier content of what the LGBTQ, and specifically the trans community, had to deal with during and after WWII. The parallels between then and now were scary, to say the least. I cannot say enough good things about this book, and I will recommend it to everyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and Counterpoint Press for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I've read many books about the Holocaust that they can sometimes blend together. The Lilac People will not be one of them.

History books tell us that the LBGTQ+ community was one of the populations targeted during the Holocaust. They are often glossed over, as much of LGBTQ+ history is. This includes what happened to them after the Allies freed other minorities from concentration camps: the cruel reality that not everyone was free. While American soldiers were viewed as the heroes of World War II, they were not much better than Hitler when it came to their treatment of the queer community. Milo Todd's story was honest and didn't pull any punches when it came to the U.S.'s role in erasing the community no matter where they lived.

Todd did an incredible job of developing these lovable characters in Bertie, Sofie, Karl, and Gert. There was so much risk in living as your true self during this time, but they never wavered. Going back into the closet was not an option, no matter how much it risked their safety. The emphasis on queer history and their legacies was woven into every page. The ending was so bittersweet, a perfect balance between joy and heartache.

If you are interested in queer history or just looking for a different perspective on WWII than most other books on the topic, read this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of The Lilac People by Milo Todd.

This book was moving, heartbreaking, and ultimately scary how close our current world seems to be. It was eye-opening to read about pre-WWII Germany and the work that was being done to help the LGBTQ community and how fast that all went downhill because of Hitler and his followers. A great WWII story and history that was unlike any I've ever read.

This book gives voice to the forgotten victims of the Holocaust, the men and women of the LGBTQ+ community who were forced into hiding or forced to wear pink or black triangles. The suffering did not end with the war, however, as Allied forces rounded up LGBTQ+ victims and tried to arrest or threaten them.

The story of Bertie, Gert, and Sophie flashes back before the war and after the war when they meet Carl, another trans man who was held in a concentration camp. The characters are resilient, multifaceted, and courageous. This story will stay with me for a long time. I enjoyed the narrator as well, and hope that this book receives the awards and recognition it deserves.

Is this truly an important book, historical fiction grounded in facts that most of us know little about but definitely should. In depicting the lives of queer people (both gay and trans) in pre-WWII and immediately post-WWII Germany, Todd reveals lives that held aspects of (sometimes tentative) joy and hope in the early 1930s and then continuing horror (if still holding a bit of hope) the immediate aftermath of the war. I sometimes found the writing sometimes moved into sections of flooding the reader with facts in sometimes clumsy ways, but they were facts we needed to appreciate the experiences of the characters. I also found the characters a bit one-dimensional and the prose occasionally clunky, but none of that detracts from the importance of the book, especially as we see history repeating itself now. Though I fear many who should read this won't, those of us who do will feel newly energized to support LGBTQ folks who, as Todd recounts, are often the "canaries in the coalmine" when it comes to fascist regimes.

A transgender man and his girlfriend in Germany must change their identities to survive during World War II. With flashbacks to the early 1930s in Berlin, we see their lives in a thriving LGBTQ community. This was a fascinating and extremely timely story that is perfect for readers of World War II historical fiction because it explores a topic that hasn't been widely written about. I didn't love the writing and got bored at times, but this book taught me a lot, so it was worth my time.

I enjoyed The Lilac People. It felt incredibly relevant to today's political atmosphere in a worrying way, and I feel like I learned a lot about the historical time period and queer history.

An incredible book that has left me nearly speechless. Following the life of a trans man from the Weimar Republic through his experience in Nazi Germany and witnessing the loss of the Magnus Institute and its book burning, this novel feels to me as though it has colored in
gaps of history. It is novels like these that truly illustrate the power of fiction- where personal experience and historical record have been purposefully erased, burned from history, Milo Todd masterfully reaches back to offer a look into the many lives that were erased or hidden away.

Plus, there's a section at the end clarifying historical accuracy (and the fact almost every inaccuracy is simply a change in the timeline of events for plot reasons is incredibly impressive- I love that even the names of the main characters are homages to some of the only trans men from WWII Germany whose names were documented.)

And while I know my review seems sweeping and serious- this book is not a burden. There remains a faithfulness to hope, to community, to endurance, to trans and queer joy no matter the time, place, or circumstance.

This was the exact book I needed, and I believe it is a book that will change many people- offering hope to those who see themselves in Bertie and Gert, and those who will feel deep empathy after traveling alongside these characters for 300 pages.

This was a lovely historical piece, centered on a hidden experience of a minority group after the war. The time period itself is rarely written about, and so that perspective is welcome.

While a difficult story to read in this moment, THE LILAC PEOPLE is all the more important, timely, and memorable for for it, balancing the weight of buried, tragic histories with a much-needed spark of resilience and hope.

This book delves into the LGBTQ+ community in Germany before and during World War II with an emphasis on a trans man and his friends. It is informative because the book highlights actual experiences and covers a part of the Holocaust that is often overlooked in literature.

The Lilac People is a book that should circulate often to bring awareness to the past treatment of the queer community in the hope that compassion will overrule current prejudice that we are sadly facing today. It was a chilling read due to hoping history will not repeat itself.



I received a free copy of this book by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A touching and tender portrait of one an oft overlooked portion of holocaust victims. I fell in love with the characters, and I learned so much about the persecution of queer people as Hitler rose to power.

It was hard to read this book without drawing parallels to the persecution of trans and queer people in America today. There was a very powerful metaphor about canaries in coal mines that everyone should read.

I can’t stress enough what a beautiful and important book this is. Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC!

Wow. I think I’ll spend the rest of the year recommending this book to everyone I know. A very important story, especially in current times. This is a part of history I was never taught and I think it’s important for people in the trans community and in the broader queer community to see themselves in historical stories. Also loved the found family in this book.

I was moved to tears several times reading this. It made me think a lot about the morality of the decisions made, of when people helped others, or didn’t help, and what it means to protect yourself and survive.

My main critique is that I felt the first half of the book was a little slow, and I had a hard time getting into it, but I was hooked about halfway through.

An amazing book! I've already shared this title with the library LGBTQ book club although with cautions about the content. I will be encouraging more people to read this especially at this time.

The Lilac People by Milo Todd excelled on all levels. A stunning portrait of resilience and hope. 10/10!

This book was a heart-wrenching glimpse into the world of the LGBTQ+ community during World War 2. There are simply not words strong enough to convey the tragedies suffered, but it is a story that needed to be told.
I found myself at times hopeful, terrified, exhausted, and sad, sometimes all at once. The cast of characters was not only believable but a nod to those who endured the war years. My heart broke for their losses and I cheered for their triumphs.
To any reader of historical fiction, and especially to readers of LGBTQ+ literature, "The Lilac People" is a must read.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.