Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany (WWII, war, 70's, Hitler)
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A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the photograph taken in 1933 of a brown-skinned boy wearing a swastika in a schoolyard in Hamburg, Germany, does not begin to tell the story of the remarkable life of Hans J. Massaquoi. Mr. Massaquoi, former managing editor of Ebony magazine, has now told the story himself in his new book, Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany.
The title caught my eye but in a different country.....Hungary.
My mother was born in Hungary back in 1909. She moved to Canada in 1929. ,,,eventually to Calif.
To the point. After the 1956 uprising she and my dad took a trip to Hungary to visit her relatives. They got to the border with the communist guard towers maned by machine gun soldiers etc. They looked at her US Passport with it showing she had been born in Hungary.
Again to the point. My mother was standing at a corner and overheard a man speaking in Hungarian as if he were a highly educated person based upon the words used. Turned out to be a Black male. So it would seem that they can speak any language they please in whatever country they reside in.
Education and/or knowledge goes many different ways regardless of color or heritage.
So many people today have only a cartoon caricature image of Hitler and don't understand the charisma of his public persona. Watch "Triumph of the Will" sometime and see how Hitler looks straight into the eyes of those he meets and holds the gaze as if asking for trust and support.
The Reich used the Jews as a scapegoat, wanted to eliminate the Poles as a force, and had no pressing reason to go after blacks... yet. Had the story of Rommel been different, who knows.
So many people today have only a cartoon caricature image of Hitler and don't understand the charisma of his public persona. Watch "Triumph of the Will" sometime and see how Hitler looks straight into the eyes of those he meets and holds the gaze as if asking for trust and support.
The Reich used the Jews as a scapegoat, wanted to eliminate the Poles as a force, and had no pressing reason to go after blacks... yet. Had the story of Rommel been different, who knows.
The Reich did go after blacks - the thousands of "brown babies" who were born as a result of liaisons between German women and African or Caribbean soldiers in the French Army following the First World War were killed or sterilized; African POWs from the French Army captured in combat were also slaughtered on several occasions.
Massaquoi was one Black kid in a small German town. He was part of a family that was part of the town and he was protected by that town. They left him alone because he indeed was no threat. But when Germany was occupied after the end of the war, Massaquoi was very vehement in telling the Americans he wanted to go to the US.
The Reich did go after blacks - the thousands of "brown babies" who were born as a result of liaisons between German women and African or Caribbean soldiers in the French Army following the First World War were killed or sterilized; African POWs from the French Army captured in combat were also slaughtered on several occasions.
Massaquoi was one Black kid in a small German town. He was part of a family that was part of the town and he was protected by that town. They left him alone because he indeed was no threat. But when Germany was occupied after the end of the war, Massaquoi was very vehement in telling the Americans he wanted to go to the US.
There were darker colored Nazis too you know ... look up the Free Arabian Legion and the Azad Hind "Free India Legion".
The 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division "Handschar" was made up almost entirely of Bosnian Muslims.
It is also worth noting that there are Germans in the Alpine region that have consederably darker skin than other germanic peoples. I have not studied much on WWII or Nazis. However, Alpine German immigrants to the United States during the 19th century were noted as having a considerably darker complection than most "white" people. Enlistment and parole forms from the Civil War sometimes note this.
I knew a black German in Cuba, he worked for the German Embassy in Havana. His mother married a black Cuban musician and they were expelled during the 30's (mother included). He was, or he is (he must be in his late 70's) entirely German, he spoke perfect German.
Last edited by Cocoricoco; 05-01-2012 at 05:35 AM..
It is also worth noting that there are Germans in the Alpine region that have consederably darker skin than other germanic peoples. I have not studied much on WWII or Nazis. However, Alpine German immigrants to the United States during the 19th century were noted as having a considerably darker complection than most "white" people. Enlistment and parole forms from the Civil War sometimes note this.
Alpine Germans, Austrians, Swiss, French, Italians, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Eastern Europeans do not have dark skin, they are rather pale with black hair and stocky. Hitler was Alpine. Some are culturally Germanic. Alpines are the original inhabitants of Europe, proto-vascoids that lived sheltered in the Spanish peninsula from 24.000 to 1.000 BC years ago during the Glaciations. They expanded as the ice retreated.
Last edited by Cocoricoco; 05-01-2012 at 05:47 AM..
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