I received this from someone else and felt it was very interesting and wanted to share.
I would highly recommend Destined To Witness by Hans J. Massaquoi, who grew up in Nazi Germany as the product of a German mother & African father. He later in life became an editor at Ebony magazine. It is one of the most interesting biographies. Imagine, a young Black boy wondering why he couldn't be accepted in Hitler's Youth movement. This bio reveals some of the historical accuracies of racism in Nazi Germany. I promise that you will find it to be fast reading as well as extremely enlightening. If you or anyone reads this bio, I would like to know your opinion.
The Black Germans
Black Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust,"
Black Historical Information .....
BLACK GERMAN HOLOCAUST VICTIMS...
So much of our history is lost to us because we often don't write the
history books, don't film the documentaries, or don't pass the accounts
down from generation to generation.
One documentary now touring the film festival circuit, telling us to
"Always Remember" is "Black Survivors of the Holocaust" (1997). Outside
the U.S.., the film is entitled "Hitler's Forgotten Victims"
(Afro-Wisdom Productions) . It codifies another dimension to the "Never
Forget" Holocaust story--our imension.
Did you know that in the 1920's, there were 24,000 Blacks living in
Germany? Neither did I. Here's how it happened, and how many of them
were eventually caught unawares by the events of the Holocaust.
Like most West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa
in the late 1800's in what later became Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, and
Tanzania. German genetic experiments began there, most notably
involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left
60,000 Africans dead, following a 4-year revolt against German
colonization. After the shellacking Germany received in World War I, it
was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.
As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the
Rhineland--a bitter piece of real estate that has gone back and forth
between the two nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed
their own colonized African soldiers as the occupying force. Germans
viewed this as the final insult of world War I, and soon thereafter,
92% of them voted the Nazi party into power.
Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with
German women and raised their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler wrote about his plans for these "Rhineland Bastards." When he
came to power, one of his first directives was aimed at these
mixed-race children. Underscoring Hitler's obsession with racial
purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had
been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further 'race polluting,'
as Hitler termed it.
Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim of Hitler's
mandatory sterilization program, explained in the film "Hitler's
Forgotten Victims" that, when he was forced to undergo sterilization as
a teenager, he was given no anesthetic. Once he received his
sterilization certificate, he was "free to go" so long as he agreed to
have no sexual relations whatsoever with Germans.
Although most Black Germans attempted to escape their fatherland,
heading for France where people like Josephine Baker were steadily
aiding and supporting the French Underground, many still encountered
problems elsewhere. Nations shut their doors to Germans, including the
Black ones.
Some Black Germans were able to eke out a living during Hitler's reign
of terror by performing in Vaudeville shows, but many Blacks, steadfast
in their belief that they were German first and Black second, opted to
remain in Germany. Some fought with the Nazis (a few even became
Luftwaffe pilots). Unfortunately, many Black Germans were arrested,
charged with treason, and shipped in cattle cars to concentration
camps. Often these trains were so packed with people and (equipped with
no bathroom facilities or food) that, after the four-day journey, box
car doors were opened to piles of the dead and dying.
Once inside the concentration camps, Blacks were given the worst jobs
conceivable. Some Black American soldiers, who were captured and held
as prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were being starved and
forced into dangerous labor (violating the Geneva Convention), they
were still better off than Black German concentration camp detainees,
who were forced to do the unthinkable- -man the crematoriums and work
in labs where genetic experiments were being conducted. As a final
sacrifice, these Blacks were killed every three months so that they
would never be able to reveal the inner workings of the "Final
Solution."
In every story of Black oppression, no matter how we were enslaved,
shackled, or beaten, we always found a way to survive and to rescue
others. As a case in point, consider Johnny Voste, a Belgian resistance
fighter who was arrested in 1942 for alleged sabotage and then shipped
to Dachau.
One of his jobs was stacking vitamin crates. Risking his own life, he
distributed hundreds of vitamins to camp detainees, which saved the
lives of many who were starving, weak, and ill--conditions exacerbated
by extreme vitamin deficiencies. His motto was "No, you can't have my
life; I will fight for it."
According to Essex University's Delroy Constantine- Simms, there were
Black Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Lari Gilges, who
founded the Northwest Rann--an organization of entertainers that fought
the Nazis in his home town of Dusseldorf-- and who was murdered by the
SS in 1933, the year that Hitler came into power.
Little information remains about the numbers of Black Germans held in
the camps or killed under the Nazi regime. Some victims of the Nazi
sterilization project and Black survivors of the Holocaust are still
alive and telling their story in films such as "Black Survivors of the
Nazi Holocaust," but they must also speak out for justice, not just
history.
Unlike Jews (in Israel and in Germany), Black Germans, although
German-born, have received no war reparations because their German
citizenship was revoked. The only pension they get is from those of us
who are willing to tell the world their stories and continue their
battle for recognition and compensation.
After the war, scores of Blacks who had somehow managed to survive the
Nazi regime, were rounded up and tried as war criminals. Talk about the
final insult! There are thousands of Black Holocaust stories, from the
triangle trade, to slavery in America, to the gas oven s in Germany.
We often shy away from hearing about our historical past because so
much of it is painful; however, we are in this struggle together for
rights, dignity, and, yes, reparations for wrongs done to us through
the centuries. We need to always remember so that we can take steps to
ensure that these atrocities never happen again.
For further information, read: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in
Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi.
I would highly recommend Destined To Witness by Hans J. Massaquoi, who grew up in Nazi Germany as the product of a German mother & African father. He later in life became an editor at Ebony magazine. It is one of the most interesting biographies. Imagine, a young Black boy wondering why he couldn't be accepted in Hitler's Youth movement. This bio reveals some of the historical accuracies of racism in Nazi Germany. I promise that you will find it to be fast reading as well as extremely enlightening. If you or anyone reads this bio, I would like to know your opinion.
The Black Germans
Black Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust,"
Black Historical Information .....
BLACK GERMAN HOLOCAUST VICTIMS...
So much of our history is lost to us because we often don't write the
history books, don't film the documentaries, or don't pass the accounts
down from generation to generation.
One documentary now touring the film festival circuit, telling us to
"Always Remember" is "Black Survivors of the Holocaust" (1997). Outside
the U.S.., the film is entitled "Hitler's Forgotten Victims"
(Afro-Wisdom Productions) . It codifies another dimension to the "Never
Forget" Holocaust story--our imension.
Did you know that in the 1920's, there were 24,000 Blacks living in
Germany? Neither did I. Here's how it happened, and how many of them
were eventually caught unawares by the events of the Holocaust.
Like most West European nations, Germany established colonies in Africa
in the late 1800's in what later became Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, and
Tanzania. German genetic experiments began there, most notably
involving prisoners taken from the 1904 Heroro Massacre that left
60,000 Africans dead, following a 4-year revolt against German
colonization. After the shellacking Germany received in World War I, it
was stripped of its African colonies in 1918.
As a spoil of war, the French were allowed to occupy Germany in the
Rhineland--a bitter piece of real estate that has gone back and forth
between the two nations for centuries. The French willfully deployed
their own colonized African soldiers as the occupying force. Germans
viewed this as the final insult of world War I, and soon thereafter,
92% of them voted the Nazi party into power.
Hundreds of the African Rhineland-based soldiers intermarried with
German women and raised their children as Black Germans. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler wrote about his plans for these "Rhineland Bastards." When he
came to power, one of his first directives was aimed at these
mixed-race children. Underscoring Hitler's obsession with racial
purity, by 1937, every identified mixed-race child in the Rhineland had
been forcibly sterilized, in order to prevent further 'race polluting,'
as Hitler termed it.
Hans Hauck, a Black Holocaust survivor and a victim of Hitler's
mandatory sterilization program, explained in the film "Hitler's
Forgotten Victims" that, when he was forced to undergo sterilization as
a teenager, he was given no anesthetic. Once he received his
sterilization certificate, he was "free to go" so long as he agreed to
have no sexual relations whatsoever with Germans.
Although most Black Germans attempted to escape their fatherland,
heading for France where people like Josephine Baker were steadily
aiding and supporting the French Underground, many still encountered
problems elsewhere. Nations shut their doors to Germans, including the
Black ones.
Some Black Germans were able to eke out a living during Hitler's reign
of terror by performing in Vaudeville shows, but many Blacks, steadfast
in their belief that they were German first and Black second, opted to
remain in Germany. Some fought with the Nazis (a few even became
Luftwaffe pilots). Unfortunately, many Black Germans were arrested,
charged with treason, and shipped in cattle cars to concentration
camps. Often these trains were so packed with people and (equipped with
no bathroom facilities or food) that, after the four-day journey, box
car doors were opened to piles of the dead and dying.
Once inside the concentration camps, Blacks were given the worst jobs
conceivable. Some Black American soldiers, who were captured and held
as prisoners of war, recounted that, while they were being starved and
forced into dangerous labor (violating the Geneva Convention), they
were still better off than Black German concentration camp detainees,
who were forced to do the unthinkable- -man the crematoriums and work
in labs where genetic experiments were being conducted. As a final
sacrifice, these Blacks were killed every three months so that they
would never be able to reveal the inner workings of the "Final
Solution."
In every story of Black oppression, no matter how we were enslaved,
shackled, or beaten, we always found a way to survive and to rescue
others. As a case in point, consider Johnny Voste, a Belgian resistance
fighter who was arrested in 1942 for alleged sabotage and then shipped
to Dachau.
One of his jobs was stacking vitamin crates. Risking his own life, he
distributed hundreds of vitamins to camp detainees, which saved the
lives of many who were starving, weak, and ill--conditions exacerbated
by extreme vitamin deficiencies. His motto was "No, you can't have my
life; I will fight for it."
According to Essex University's Delroy Constantine- Simms, there were
Black Germans who resisted Nazi Germany, such as Lari Gilges, who
founded the Northwest Rann--an organization of entertainers that fought
the Nazis in his home town of Dusseldorf-- and who was murdered by the
SS in 1933, the year that Hitler came into power.
Little information remains about the numbers of Black Germans held in
the camps or killed under the Nazi regime. Some victims of the Nazi
sterilization project and Black survivors of the Holocaust are still
alive and telling their story in films such as "Black Survivors of the
Nazi Holocaust," but they must also speak out for justice, not just
history.
Unlike Jews (in Israel and in Germany), Black Germans, although
German-born, have received no war reparations because their German
citizenship was revoked. The only pension they get is from those of us
who are willing to tell the world their stories and continue their
battle for recognition and compensation.
After the war, scores of Blacks who had somehow managed to survive the
Nazi regime, were rounded up and tried as war criminals. Talk about the
final insult! There are thousands of Black Holocaust stories, from the
triangle trade, to slavery in America, to the gas oven s in Germany.
We often shy away from hearing about our historical past because so
much of it is painful; however, we are in this struggle together for
rights, dignity, and, yes, reparations for wrongs done to us through
the centuries. We need to always remember so that we can take steps to
ensure that these atrocities never happen again.
For further information, read: Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in
Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi.
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