Milo Todd’s debut historical novel, The Lilac People (2025), illuminates a largely erased chapter of queer and trans history during the Weimar Republic and World War II. In May 1945, Berthold “Bertie” Durchdenwald, a trans man living under an alias, has survived the Nazi regime by faking his death and hiding on a remote farm with his lover, Sofie. Their precarious peace is shattered when he discovers Karl, a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp, and learns that the Allied liberators are re-imprisoning queer survivors. The arrival of the American occupying forces compels the trio to attempt a perilous escape to America, forcing them to confront the past they fought to survive and the uncertain future that awaits. The novel examines themes of The Arbitrary Nature of Survival, Passivity as Complicity in Atrocities, and The Need to Protect Marginalized Groups.

This guide uses the 2025 Counterpoint edition of the text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of racism, religious discrimination, gender discrimination, transgender discrimination, antigay bias, sexual violence, sexual harassment, rape, child sexual abuse, child death, substance use, graphic violence, cursing, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and death.

Language Note: The source material uses outdated and offensive terminology related to sexual orientation and gender identity to depict historical experiences of queer and gender-diverse people. This language is reproduced in the guide only when directly quoting the text or when necessary to identify and discuss a historical term or document (such as Transvestitenschein). Elsewhere, the guide uses respectful contemporary terminology, such as gay, transgender, trans, and gender-nonconforming, according to context.

Plot Summary

In Ulm, Germany, in May 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, Bertie and Sofie live in hiding on a small farm under the aliases Goss and Ina Baumann, the deceased grandparents of Bertie’s closest friend, Gert. After years of hiding from Nazi persecution, their isolation is disrupted when Karl Fuchs, an emaciated survivor from the Dachau concentration camp, collapses in their asparagus patch. Karl explains that the Allied forces are not liberating all prisoners; those with pink triangles (for gay activity) and certain black triangles (for “asocials”) are being transferred to jails to serve out their sentences. Bertie and Sofie take Karl in, but their situation becomes more dire when they receive an order from the American occupying forces, signed by Lieutenant William Ward, to report for compulsory labor at Oberer Kuhberg. This forces the trio to devise a plan to flee Germany for America on a ship rumored to be leaving from Amsterdam in three weeks for New York.

The narrative alternates between their escape in 1945 and Bertie’s life in Berlin before the Nazi takeover. In 1932, Bertie works as an assistant to the pioneering sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the world-renowned Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexual Science). He enjoys a rich social life with Gert and other friends, frequenting queer-friendly clubs like the Eldorado. He meets Sofie, a pianist who becomes his partner. However, the Nazi party’s rise casts a darkening shadow over their lives. The political climate deteriorates rapidly after Hitler is appointed Chancellor in 1933. Queer clubs are shuttered, and the Institut is targeted. On May 6, 1933, Nazi students storm the Institut, burning its priceless archives and assaulting the staff. Bertie narrowly escapes by jumping from a window, but in his panic, he burns only his own file, leaving behind the newly created file for a young Karl Fuchs. A year later, during the Night of the Long Knives, a purge targeting homosexuals begins. Gert rushes to Bertie’s apartment, warning him and Sofie to fake their deaths and flee to his grandparents’ farm in Ulm. Gert promises to follow after leaving his own false suicide note, but he never arrives.

In 1945, Bertie attempts to prepare Karl for the scrutiny they may face while traveling while Sofie helps him cope with his trauma through piano lessons and music. Their nosy neighbor, Frau Baer, grows more suspicious, and Lt. Ward repeatedly investigates the farm, nearly discovering Karl, who hides by leaping from a second-story window. Ward’s soldiers force local civilians, including Bertie and Sofie, to tour the nearby Oberer Kuhberg camp and witness evidence of Nazi atrocities. At a display of victims’ belongings from Dachau, Bertie is horrified to recognize what he believes is Gert’s distinctive flat-cap, intensifying his fear of Gert’s death. Shattered, Bertie confronts Karl, who admits he saw Gert at Dachau and knew he was dead. This prompts Karl to share the harrowing story of his 11 years of survival, lasting sexual exploitation by officers and being forced into the camp’s brothels. After liberation, he fled when he realized that gay, trans, and gender nonconforming prisoners like him were being returned to custody rather than released.

While looking through his photo album, Bertie sees a photograph of Gert holding his American passport. He devises a plan for them to forge their own American passports allowing them to escape. Their plan is nearly discovered when Ward returns, having pieced together their true identities are not the Baumanns. He corners Bertie, demanding to know what happened to the farm’s original owners. As Ward prepares to arrest them, Karl makes a dramatic entrance, impeccably dressed and posing as their visiting nephew. He spins a convincing tale of being a Jewish family who survived the Holocaust in hiding, a story that temporarily placates the suspicious lieutenant. The ruse buys them time, but the following night, Ward returns, having found a newspaper clipping Bertie dropped and used it to identify him as Berthold Durchdenwald from records retained from the Institut by the Nazi regime.

As Ward and his soldiers move in to arrest him, Bertie creates a diversion by throwing the ashes of Gert’s grandparents, which they keep in an urn, into the officers’ faces. He flees into the woods, leading the soldiers on a chase and giving Sofie and Karl the chance to escape with their suitcases and forged passports. Bertie finds refuge with their neighbor Frau Baer, who reveals she is a Jewish survivor named Frau Ber and has been cautiously assessing them the whole time. She gives him a gold pocket watch to pay for his passage. Bertie walks for a full day to Stuttgart, where he reunites with Sofie and Karl at the ferry dock. They narrowly escape Ward again when a sympathetic Nazi passenger helps hide them under a pile of coats during a search of the vessel. The ten-day journey to Amsterdam is grueling, and they are forced into an uneasy alliance with the Nazi and his friends, who believe them to be fellow sympathizers and help them after Karl falls overboard.

After crossing the Atlantic, Bertie, Sofie, and Karl arrive in New York, where an immigration official quickly recognizes that their American passports are forged. During questioning, he demands that Karl prove Sofie is a piano teacher by playing a piece. Knowing only a simple melody, Karl cleverly offers to play “Das Lila Lied,” framing the queer anthem as a traditional German song about family pride and resilience. Rather than deporting them, the official confiscates the forged documents and prepares legitimate American passports. At Karl’s request, all three take the surname Bauman in honor of the family that helped protect them, becoming Burt, Sophie, and Carl Bauman. Bertie is particularly affected when his passport officially identifies him as a male.

Outside the immigration building, they are met by Roy Collins, Gert’s former partner who had received Bertie’s letter and was waiting for them. He had hoped Gert might have escaped with Bertie, but their reunion confirms that Gert never reached America. Roy offers the new Bauman family a place to stay and explains that the United States is recruiting some former Nazis for intelligence work, likely accounting for the ease with which the Nazi sympathizers traveled aboard the ship across the Atlantic. As Bertie, Sofie, and Karl enter New York, they remain uncertain about how safe or accepting their new country will be. Nevertheless, they resolve to continue living together while preserving and passing on the history of the people and community they lost.