A look into his 'Germany'

With a new memoir out, gay author Lev Raphael explores his past and connects it to the LGBT movement

Lev Raphael is standing in the doorway of his home, holding back one of his West Highland Terriers. Promptly he is in the kitchen, using his Braun coffee maker, an emblem of a fear of all things German his new book, "My Germany," has helped him to overcome.

For nearly two decades, Lev Raphael has mined the landscape of his youth as a "second generation" of Holocaust survivors. But in his newly released My Germany, the focus of his work turns towards understand, truth and history.

"My Germany," Raphael's recently released memoir, explores not only the war time …