For readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam a moving and deeply humane story
about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis
then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves In 1932 Berlin Bertie a trans man and
his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving
queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual
Science Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond but everything changes
when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided the Eldorado is shuttered and queer
people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend Sofie to a nearby farm.
There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in
isolation. In the final days of the war with their freedom in sight Bertie and Sofie find a
young trans man collapsed on their property still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They
vow to protect him—not from the Nazis but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer
prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically as the Allies’ vise grip closes
on Bertie and his family their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States. Brimming
with hope resilience and the enduring power of community The Lilac People tells an
extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an occluded moment of trans history.
