Queer History Club: People Without History Are Dust - Queer Desire and the Holocaust
Queer History Club: People Without History Are Dust - Queer Desire and the Holocaust
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People Without History Are Dust: Queer Desire and the Holocaust
Where are the stories of great queer love in the Shoah? There are almost none. Anna Hájková explains why the history of same-sex desire in the Shoah, that is, queerness among Jews persecuted by the Nazis for their race, has been excluded and marginalized, and how its return to our understanding of the Holocaust can offer an inclusive and feminist history of this genocide. Based on original and extensive archival research, her book offers a concise insight into the queer history of the Holocaust for beginners and advanced alike. Anna Hájková will introduce her book in conversation with Helen Finch and Kit Heyam.
Content: the talk will include discussion of sexualized violence
About the author: Dr Anna Hájková is Reader of modern European continental history at the University of Warwick, UK. She is the author of, among others, The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt (2020) and People without History are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust (2025). Hájková is the pioneer of queer Holocaust history.
About the facilitator: Helen Finch is Professor of German Literature at the University of Leeds. She has recently co-edited a special edition of Holocaust Studies, ‘Queer Experiences in the Holocaust’, with Dr. Rosie Ramsden.
Kit Heyam is a Leeds-based heritage practitioner, trans awareness trainer, academic and author of Before We Were Trans.
Date: Wednesday 1st July 2026
Time: 7-9pm
Venue: The Bookish Type, 77a Great George Street, LS1 3BR
Tickets are on a sliding scale (£8 /£5 / £3 / £0)
Please be honest about your financial situation when selecting what to pay for your ticket. If you purchase a ticket at the lowest end of the scale when you could afford the higher ticket prices, it makes it harder for us to provide financial flexibility to those who most need it.
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Tickets are only refundable up to 7 days before the event starts. Please email to cancel.
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Access Info
The shop has an 8cm step but we have a ramp we can put in place if required.
There is a downstairs bathroom with toilet and hand basin.
There is a range of seating including chairs that are armless with padded seats and backs, armless sofa, bench with cushions.
Face masks are encouraged but not required; an H13 HEPA air purifier will be in use.
On street parking available (charges may apply).
Please email in advance if you have any specific access needs: thebookishtypeleeds@gmail.com
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