Germany's Black Holocaust: 1890-1945

by Carr, Firpo

  And even under the dreaded Nazi rule Afro-Germans, generally, were not in any danger of being completely purged from the German scene.

  Under Nazi rule there was no central plan to eliminate African Germans and other blacks from Germany and the occupied territories, since their population posed no immediate threat.[18]

  A few even found the entertainment industry a haven that shielded them from the brutality and inhumanity of National Socialism, or, Nazism.

  Thus, even under Nazi control, the film industry provided a certain amount of protection for Black Germans. As Black actor Werner Egoimue explains, “We had an agent then, who had all the addresses of Black people in Berlin. The Reich’s Chamber of Commerce was in touch with him, and when they were casting a film, it was fun—inside the studio. Outside the door you could be arrested. But inside you were as safe as in a bank.”[19]

  While there may not have been an official “central plan” to eliminate Blacks from Germany (at least one that has yet to be discovered), Blacks certainly did not get by unscathed under Nazi rule.

  In fact, if the Black person was an entertainer, he quite possibly had a Jew, in some cases, as his agent. The Star of David somewhere on his person may have indicated this. In other cases, he was still incarcerated.[***]

  Though black entertainers were popular in Germany before Hitler came to power, they were boycotted when the Nazis took over. A book entitled Degenerate Music: An Accounting was published in 1938. The cover shows a black musician with a Jewish star in his lapel.[20]

  The German mindset had already been established in their African colonies. While there was to be no social intercourse with native Africans, they did serve a useful purpose.

  The native Africans were to live in assigned areas suitable for their traditional ways. The paths of the master race and the inferior race were never to cross, with the exception, of course, that the inferior race was to serve as forced labor for the economic profit of Germany.[21]

  After World War I, the Allies stripped Germany of its African colonies. The German military stationed in Africa (Schutztruppen), as well as missionaries, colonial bureaucrats, and settlers, returned to Germany and took with them their racist attitudes. Separation of whites and blacks was mandated by the Reichstag (German parliament), which enacted a law against mixed marriages in the African colonies.[22]

  As long as Blacks were entertaining White Germans and served in some inauspicious capacity—some subservient position—their lives would be spared, or they would remain free. They were useful—like animals or beasts of burden.

  The analogy with animals is indeed a fair one, and quite appropriate. Animals entertain us. If we want to be especially entertained by animals, we go to the zoo, or circus.[†††]

  They also serve us in special capacities, like guide dogs (or seeing-eye dogs). Dolphins were even used during World War II for purposes of war.

  But the moment any animal gets out of line, the family dog for instance, there would be dire consequences. Just let the family dog (say, for example a pit bull terrier) attack a family member, and he would probably be put to sleep.

  One Black concentration camp survivor noted the correlation between the Nazi’s perceptions of Blacks and domesticated and untamed animals:

  One description of concentration camp life is given by Johnny William, born to an African mother and white Frenchman, who was transported by the Gestapo to the Neugengamme concentration camp near Hamburg. “There were five or six of us. As soon as we arrived, we were immediately separated from the white deportees by the SS. They considered us to be subhuman beings like animals, chimpanzees.”[23] (Emphasis supplied.)

  Although it is well known that Jews and others were obviously treated very badly as well, no group outside of Blacks was ever universally considered to be animals.

  In fact, there was one Jew who was considered by Hitler to be the farthest thing from a lowly, extremely shallow thinking, unspiritual animal. As a matter of record, Hitler compared this Jew to a prophet.

  The Jew Hitler Admired,

  the Black Hitler Devoured!

  Hitler’s appraisal of Jews by and large was considerably different and distinct from the Nazi assessment of Africans and their descendants. Note how one Nazi official, reflecting the party line, made this point when discussing the matter.

  On June 20, 1939, months before the start of World War II, Fischer indicated something about Nazi racial attitudes when he stated, “I do not categorize every Jew as inferior, as [I do] Negroes, and I do not underestimate the greatest enemy with whom we have to fight.”[24]

  No, not every Jew was inferior. A logical segue way would be that Hitler and the Nazis even considered some Jews “superior,” as outlandish as that may sound.

  Collectively, the Jews were considered to be “the greatest enemy with whom [the Nazis] have to fight.” Hitler called the Jew “the mightiest counterpart to the Aryan,” as quoted below.

  There was almost a reverential respect for the Jews by the Nazis, just as today’s neo-Nazis and diverse other White supremacists groups secretly admire the Jews.

  A very interesting example of Hitler’s estimation of one Jew in particular may come to the minds of a few of those familiar with the story.

  As amazing as it may seem, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) himself studied the writings of a Jew he greatly admired. In line with what has been stated above, he even went so far as to categorize this Jew as “superior.”

  The boundaries of his admiration, documented by his own hand, knew no shame. Obviously, to the Reich leader, this specific Jew, to be sure, was the exception to the rule.

  Instead of quoting some third party as to just how Hitler felt about our mysterious but very famous Jew—incidentally, it is not Jesus Christ—we will hear from Adolf Hitler himself:

  I began to study again, and now for the first time really achieved an understanding of the content of the Jew Karl Marx’s life effort.[25]

  Actually Karl Marx was only the one among millions who, with the sure eye of the prophet, recognized in the morass of a slowly decomposing world the most essential poisons, extracted them, and, like a wizard, prepared them into a concentrated solution for the swifter annihilation of the independent existence of free nations on this earth.[26]

  It was the Jew, Karl Marx, who was able to draw the extreme inference from those false conceptions and views concerning the nature and purpose of a state: by detaching the state concept from racial obligations without being able to arrive at any other equally acknowledged formulation, the bourgeois world even paved the way for a doctrine which denies the state as such.[27]

  The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew. … The mental qualities of the Jew have been schooled in the course of many centuries. Today he passes as ‘smart,’ and this in a certain sense he has been at all times.[28]

  Again, by way of contrast, when Hitler considered “the [Black] who has been schooled,” and who may have become a lawyer for instance, he said it was no less dissimilar from training a French poodle to do seemingly amazing tricks. The juxtaposition of an educated Jew and an educated Black is expanded on further below.

  Yes, quite surprisingly, Karl Marx (1818-1883) was Hitler’s man. Not that Blacks in sum have every sought Hitler’s endorsement. The point is that he certainly never said anything like that about any Black person anywhere at any time. What is more, a few Jews, with Hitler’s approval, were even allowed to become Nazis.[‡‡‡]

  Even at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, when he witnessed firsthand the feats of the African American tract star and soon-to-be Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens outpace the “superior” field and track German athletes, Hitler did not acknowledge what the whole world witnessed. (See page 49.)

  Hitler’s hatred of blacks extended to black athletes. When Jesse Owens, the American tract star, won three gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Hitler refused to be present when the medals were presented.[29]

  Around the same tim
e there was the heavyweight fight with wartime implications between the Nazi Aryan Max Schmeling and the African American “Brown Bomber” Joe Louis. Actually, there were two fights between these men. (See page 50.)

  Because of the serious overtones of the two historic battles between these modern-day gladiators, sports writer Dave Kindred wrote the following:

  Max Schmeling, a German, had knocked out Louis in the 12th round of a fight in 1936. The next year, Louis had won the heavyweight championship. Early in ‘38, the world teetered on the brink of World War II and the Louis-Schmeling rematch had become a metaphor of that coming war.

  More than any other sports event, a fight can be laden with meaning beyond itself. …

  Never has any fight carried more symbolic weight than Louis-Schmeling on June 22, 1938. That’s why it ranks No. 2 on my list of the Five Best Sports Events of the 20th century. The story really begins in 1935, even before the first Louis-Schmeling fight.

  As Adolf Hitler consolidated his dictatorship in Germany and rattled swords at his neighbors, Schmeling once served as a sports diplomat of sorts…Though Hitler admired Schmeling, he worried about the upcoming fight with Louis. Historian Chris Mead, in a study of Louis, wrote:

  “When he got back to Germany (after meeting American Olympic officials), Schmeling lunched with Adolf Hitler in Munich . . . .The dictator was upset that Schmeling was risking Germany’s reputation in a fight against a black man when there was so little chance of victory. With his usual self-confidence, Schmeling assured his Fuehrer that he had a good chance to win, and Hitler presented the boxer with an autographed picture of himself. Schmeling hung the picture of Hitler in his study.”

  After Schmeling’s knockout victory over Louis on June 19, 1936, the New York newspaperman Westbrook Pegler wrote that at no time leading up to the fight had the Nazi government of Hitler attached itself to Schmeling’s hopes:

  “He was absolutely on his own, because there seemed an excellent chance that having already been knocked out by a Jew (Max Baer) he would now be stretched in the resin at the feet of a cotton-field Negro... But before the night was over, Schmeling had become a great German patriot, and his unexpected conquest of the colored boy had been taken over as a triumph for Adolf Hitler and his government.”

  Hitler dispatched a telegram to Schmeling in New York: “Most cordial congratulations on your victory.” Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels also weighed in: “I know you fought for Germany; that it was a German victory. We are proud of you. Heil Hitler! Regards.”

  On his return to Germany, Schmeling brought his wife to lunch with Hitler in the Reich Chancellery.

  Small wonder, then, that two years later, Louis came to the second meeting with Schmeling so intent on victory. … In two minutes and four seconds, Louis knocked out Schmeling.

  While Hitler sent a telegram of condolences, most German reports downplayed the defeat as meaningless to the nation’s prestige, some claiming Louis had fouled Schmeling with a paralyzing kidney punch. Americans cheered giddily, as in the boxing magazine, Ring:

  “The World’s heavyweight boxing title stayed American and non-Aryan when, in 2 min. 4 sec. on the muggy night of June 22, Joe Louis, Negro champion, knocked out Max Schmeling, the white hope of Germany . . . The German press fulminated, blaming their hero’s defeat on American machinations. But anti-Nazis gloated.”…

  It was known that Schmeling regarded himself as a Nazi symbol. It is not known whether Joe Louis consciously regards himself as a representative of his race and as one under dedication to advance its prestige. “I can’t remember that he has ever said anything about it. But that may have been in his heart when he exploded the Nordic myth with a bombing glove.”[30]

  Be that as it may, as stated at the outset of this chapter, Black Germans still enjoyed relative peaceful coexistence with other Germans before the outbreak of World War II.

  Fascinatingly, a few years prior to the “Roaring 20s” that took America by storm, 15,000 Black Africans, who were German soldiers, fought and died for Germany’s last Kaiser—Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941)—in World War I (1914-1918).

  These Black African soldiers from German colonies, however, are not the Black occupying force referred to in the chapter title. The armies mentioned there were enemies of Third Reich Germany, and they are discussed further below.

  In the meantime, many of the children of the veteran World War I Afro-German soldiers were, in fact, native Germans who, as has been explained, peacefully cohabited with their fellow German citizens who were White.

  But then something happened that completely changed forever the salt and pepper mix that dotted the sophisticated social landscape.

  “Soldiers of Color”—On Opposing Sides?

  “Negroes,” “Coloreds,” “Blacks,” and “Afro-Americans” are a few of the names that African Americans have accepted or adopted—and later rejected in some cases—in the recent past. “People [or Person] of Color” is one of the currently universally accepted terms, along with “People [or Person] of African descent.”

  Of course, the designation “Soldiers of Color” would for some bring Black American soldiers to mind. However, as we shall see, when the phrase was used during World War II, Black soldiers from Africa—not America—were being referred to in the context of the present discussion.

  In fact, coming straight to the point, it was a startling discovery to the author to find that this was one of the labels that Hitler himself came up with for African soldiers who fought in the early part of World War II, particularly those who fought on German soil. He called them “Soldiers of Color.”

  Yes, carefully concealed in the pages of history is the remarkable story of Black African French soldiers, “Soldiers of Color,” patrolling and controlling a region of German called the Rhineland, a rich, highly industrialized area west of the Rhine River.

  Not only were White Germans under their authority, but in a strange twist of irony, the aforementioned older, now retired veteran Black African German soldiers of World War I fame had to “bow,” as it were, to them as well. A strange scene indeed!

  This is not to suggest that a battle erupted between the two groups. However, what it does suggest is that there was doubtlessly an awkward situation that sprang from any encounters. A conundrum, of sorts.

  There were two groups of battle-scared African soldiers, both on German soil, with one having dutifully fought for the Fatherland, the other having vigorously fought against it. A fascinating historic enigma if ever there was one.

  Pre-Hitler Germany did not mind so much the veteran soldiers (and their scions) from its former colonies cohabiting with its White citizens. It was tolerable, for the moment, particularly since these Blacks were all still subservient.

  This was not the case, however, with this new younger generation of Black African French soldier who now occupied German soil. This new crew was anything but subservient. They were in charge!

  Given the history of Germany’s exploits in Africa, there was surely reason for grave concern. Would the new occupational force seek vengeance? Would there be payback for past injustices to Africans? How did this new crew of Black African French soldiers come to be on German soil?

  They were Black African soldiers from French colonies in Africa![§§§] This was the first contingent of enemy Black soldiers to occupy Germany. Colonial Germany had African soldiers in WWI, why not the French in WW II?

  When colonial Germany went down in defeat in WW I, German officials signed the Peace Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, in Paris, France. This treaty allowed France to police Germany with her troops.

  As far as exacting vengeance is concerned, there is no evidence whatsoever that these Black African French soldiers sought revenge. Like most African ethnic groups, they played by different rules when it came to war and the subsequent treatment of defeated enemies.

  Upon hearing the Germans cried “uncle,” as it were, the victorious Afro-French troops readily showed mercy, as was their cu
stom. An authority verifies this fact.

  According to Sally Marks, who has made a detailed study of this issue, the response in the Rhineland was different.[31] The colonial troops were courteous and often popular. Unlike the French, they neither hated the Rhinelanders nor tried to lord it over them.[32]

  They were a hit with the German people. Their being “courteous” and respectful to the indigenous Germans had an unexpected side effect. It also made them “popular.”

  Even so, as shall be seen, these newcomers—yes, Afro-French soldiers—were about to spoil the previously mentioned party that the White German socialites and their Black entertainers had been enjoying.

  Suffice it to say, this ominous situation, as a some saw it, did not rest very well with Hitler, the relatively young upstart who, though he was a former prisoner, was a rising star in Germany. Note what has been documented:

  The arrival of several black French soldiers, who were part of the occupation force in the Rhineland after WWI, changed this existence and once Hitler came to power, the German populations resented the fact that blacks, whom they consider sub-human, had achieved the right to occupy German territory. To make matters worse, some of these soldiers had started having children with German women.[33] (This is covered in detail in Chapter Five.)

  “Ah, the fickled masses,” laments one anonymous writer. “So easily manipulated. So easily massaged.”

  Since these Black Africans were not “intelligent” enough to have occupied Germany on their own, the Germans looked beyond the Black to place the blame on some superior White nation. Who, again, might this nation be? France, of course.

  The occupation by African soldiers serving in the French Army was portrayed by Hitler in racist terminology. Hitler promoted the idea that France had deliberately stationed “Soldiers of Color” in the Rhine area, thus attributing perversion and vengeance to the hereditary enemy: France. He claimed France sought to infect the white race with the blood of an inferior race,[34] and that French colonial policy even committed the ultimate sin of permitting Negroes to migrate to the cities. He accused France of pursuing a policy of mixing races, a policy abhorrent to the principles of Nazi ideology. In Mein Kampf Hitler emphatically exclaimed that if the French had their way, colored barbaric hordes would rule from the Rhine to the Congo.[35]