This 1942 nude photograph of Yul Brynner was taken during World War II. World War II occurred from 1939 to 1945 and was mainly caused by Adolf Hitler’s reign as Germany’s dictator. The Nazis are widely known for the massacre of millions of innocent Jews, but along with many other groups, they also targeted gay men, bisexual men, and men just merely accused of homosexuality. To Hitler, these men were seen as a threat to the birth rate and therefore a threat to the people of Germany and its population. They were devalued and dehumanized. Tens of thousands of them were arrested and held in concentration camps where they faced extreme cruelty. Some were forcibly castrated, and hundreds of them (maybe even thousands) were killed. Although Lynes resided in the United States, taking erotic nude photographs of other men during this time period would seem incredibly risky, especially considering that there were still laws against homosexuality and the selling of nude male photographs in the United States as well. Brynner was no stranger to persecution either; before coming to America, his family fled to China in 1928 due to the anti-bourgeois sentiment in Communist Russia when it was a part of the Soviet Union.

“From Juli to Yul: The Brynner Family Saga from Vladivostok to Hollywood.” Wilson Center, Kennan Institute, 26 Jan. 2004, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/juli-to-yul-the-brynner-family-saga-vladivostok-to-hollywood.

Mullen, Matt. "The Pink Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pride." History, 3 Jun. 2019, https://www.history.com/articles/pink-triangle-nazi-concentration-camps.

“What Groups of People Did the Nazis Target?” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 4 Apr. 2024, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/what-groups-of-people-did-the-nazis-target.