A pink triangle - Novel by Paolo
Arigotti
Review
by Maria Teresa De Donato
Why we fall in love and why we fall in love and love a certain person rather than another is one of the Mysteries of Life that we have not been able to understand yet. Who we love and how we can or should love the other is still the subject of an ongoing debate in many circles today.
Although 'unconventional' love, such as that which arises and is consumed between persons of the same sex has always existed, been accepted, tolerated, or harshly condemned by the various religions and cultures of the moment, Paragraph 175, also known as Section 175, and included in the German Criminal Law Code in force from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994 considered the relationship between male homosexuals a crime. This law found its widest applicability in Nazi Germany and precisely from 1935 onwards.
In a Europe devastated by the German occupation and, subsequently, by the aerial bombardments of the Anglo-American Allied powers rushed to free it, two opposing forces clash on all fronts: Good and Evil.
So, therefore, while on the one hand the highly efficient and equally ruthless Nazi war machine occupies territories and selects and exterminates all those it finds in its path and considers 'undeserving to live', including millions of Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma, and other ethnic groups, as well as physically and mentally disabled and 'deviant', as homosexuals are considered by Nazism, Love, in all its forms and at all levels of the political hierarchy and the social scale, continues undeterred to be born and often grow in hiding.
A pink triangle was precisely the symbol that was sewn on the uniforms of inmates in concentration camps, as evidence of the 'crime' committed: homosexuality.
In this climate of terror and suffering spread throughout Europe, the love story of two gay couples was born and developed. To describe, however, this novel by Paolo Arigotti as the simple love story of two homosexual boys is, in my opinion, highly reductive.
Un triangolo rosa (A pink triangle) is, in its deepest essence, a book of Love, the one with a capital A, but above all of Love that goes beyond the simple relationship of a couple, whether homosexual or heterosexual: it is Love in the sense of Eros, but also the strongly empathic and supportive one, the one ready to sacrifice himself for the good and - in the case of events such as those linked to the persecutions that took place in Nazi Germany - to risk his own life to save the other, whoever he is.
A pink triangle is also the novel of the paradoxes that Life presents, of objective realities and those perceived as such that collide, meet and, in some cases, even go hand in hand and in which suddenly the impossible becomes possible. It is also a highly introspective novel which, behind a simple and direct narrative and the evolution of historical events and fiction, attempts to awaken the reader's conscience by inducing him to ask himself vital questions, to question his own beliefs and, above all, to refrain. from judgment, because what appears to human eyes is only an ephemeral perception as reality is much more complex and articulated than it may seem, and acts and relationships that may appear unacceptable hide in many cases deep feelings that deserve to be respected even when they may not be fully understood by others.
A pink triangle is also a novel that testifies to the continuous struggle between the Mind, which in its ruthless, calculating, and pragmatic way tries to give a sense and a 'logical' justification to all the horrors and crimes that are consumed around it and of which the individual is, directly or indirectly, responsible, and the Heart and Consciousness that rebel against this attitude and in some cases do not give up until they reach the desired result, namely repentance and the consequent desire and need on the part of the individual, to atone for their sins and to save as many lives as possible. This eternal struggle between Good and Evil and Heart and Consciousness that oppose with all their strength and the utmost determination without giving the individual a moment's respite coexist tumultuously in one of the most emblematic characters of fiction: the young and equally brilliant German Colonel of SS Klaus.
A
beautiful novel that offers some good food for thought and self-examination and
which, as suggested by the Monsignor, another prominent figure in this publication,
could leave some readers with a question to answer: Can conditions, such as
homosexuality, that appear to be disapproved by God, be forgiven precisely by
Him, as appropriate and thanks to His Mercy, Wisdom and, above all, His Love,
and continue to be, despite everything, harshly condemned by the judgment of
'imperfect and sinful' men?
