by Carr, Firpo
The French, as it turns out, were to blame.[****] Yes, Hitler not only castigated France, but more especially, these “colored barbaric hordes”; these dreaded “Soldiers of Color,” as he put it.
Ultimately, Hitler and the rest of Germany would have their way. Intimidated Nazi troops won a bloodless coup against the “courteous,” even “popular” Afro-French troops in 1940, because their White French superiors ordered them to stand down![††††] Hans Massaquoi, an Afro-German youth at the time, recalls:
Yet not all accounts of German victories in the newsreels were joyous occasions for me. Some I found outright embarrassing. After the massive defeat of the French army by German troops in early June 1940, [Joseph] Goebbels’s cameramen delighted in showing thousands of battle-fatigued and demoralized French African soldiers in ragged uniforms being herded into German POW camps[‡‡‡‡], with the sarcastic commentary, “Here come the defenders of Western civilization.” The hapless prisoners were juxtaposed with footage of distinctly Aryan-looking fresh German troops marching confidently in disciplined formations. “And here,” mocked the commentator, “come the barbarians.”[36]
To the dismay of Hitler and the Nazi war machine, this was not the last they would see of Black soldiers fighting the Fatherland, and all that it represented, on German soil. Yet a new type of Black soldier would arise to confront the Nazis almost a year after America entered World War II.
The German state had already “described [French] black soldiers as rapists of German women and carriers of venereal and other diseases”[37] (completely unfounded charges that will be discussed in detail later), and now the propaganda machine was in full force—from top to bottom—when it came to these troops.
The French forces included a small number of colonial troops: Senegalese, Moroccans, Malagasies, creoles, and a few Annamese from Indochina. German politicians of all shades of opinion were particularly exercised by their presence. Chancellor Muller inveighed against ‘Senegal negroes occupying Frankfurt University and Goethe House’,[38] while President Ebert, also a Social Democrat, protested against the injustice of occupation by a ‘lower culture’.[39] Outraged nationalists throughout Germany accused these troops of spreading every disease from sleeping sickness to VD, and issued postcards depicting ‘gorillas’ savaging German women.[40]
Adult African Germans were also victims. Both before and after World War I, many Africans came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, or low-level colonial officials, such as tax collectors, who had worked for the imperial colonial government.[41]
The fact that German politicians at the highest levels spewed such propaganda may have validated such in the minds of some. However, in reality, nothing could be farther from the truth.
So far from being uncontrollable rapists, the combination of exoticism and the power of the franc seems to have led to [the Black French colonial soldiers] complaining of being pestered by German women. The facts of the matter made no difference to German government-backed racist propaganda.[42]
Truth be told, as stated here, it was the German women who “pestered” the Black soldiers who were both ‘exotic’ and well paid. This economic element should not to be overlooked. Recall that Germany had just lost the war and had subsequently suffered severe financial loss.
A well-paid, well-dressed, exotic-looking Black soldier who may have learned some German—spoken, of course, with a French accent, which was slightly mingled with his native African tongue—was too much of an allurement for many a fräulein, and even a frau or two!
It is therefore not difficult at all to conceive of White German women looking to men who were not only “courteous,” but also very “popular” among the German public as described by expert researcher, Sally Marks.[43]
Given the unwarranted propaganda campaign launched by German officials, et al, what new and creative false charges could possibly be leveled against the latest Black contingent?
Whatever the charges, what Hitler did would eventually come to be identified in circles of the esoteric as…
Nazi Horrors Against African American
Soldiers During World War II
Does many a fighting man know the common refrain “War is Hell”? Without a doubt. Few who have been in the throes of war will ever argue the point.
“Hell,” however, is too soft of a word to use in describing what happened to some African American soldiers who fought in or over German soil during World War II. These Black American soldiers are the second contingent of enemy Black soldiers.
It is a part of war history that has yet to make the mainstream. In the “theater of war” that was at the time Europe, it is an act that has been cut—a scene that has come to rest on the editing room floor.
And even though this splice, or, slice, of history has just recently been rediscovered—or, “uncovered”—it still has yet to make the pages of textbooks in schools and colleges around the world. Note this keen observation:
As closely as the Holocaust has been studied by the world’s leading scholars, it may be surprising that only recently a previously unknown singled-out victim of the nazis was uncovered. African-Americans…
African-American troops apparently were targeted by the nazis when they became prisoners of war…
“The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 declared that blacks were a race of alien blood, undesirables,” [Dr.] Kesting said. “Blacks were not a target the way Jews were. They didn’t have to wear a yellow star. But their skin color was their yellow star.”…
As for African-American prisoners of war singled out for torture or worse by nazi commanders, Kesting tones of regret. “Not only were these African-American soldiers exposed to a combat situation they were not fully educated about, they were further endangered (after capture) by the color of their skin.”[44]
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a fascinating part of history storms onto the scene to grab the attention of anyone interested enough to read it.
The Nazis mistreated African American soldiers, not just because they were enemy soldiers, but because they were Black enemy soldiers. It was part of a larger picture—“an historical pattern.” This is news! But wait, there is more.
Black and White POWs—
Separate and Unequal
As stunning as all of this may be to the reader, some historians are of the opinion that there was no specific plan or official directive from the Nazi high command indicating how Black soldiers should be handled. The rebuttal to this is: apparently, none was needed.
Although there was no clear directive or official plan, evidence exists that Black Allied prisoners of war were brutally mistreated in comparison to their white counterparts, particularly by members of the Gestapo or SS.[45]
Not only were “Black Allied prisoners of war” severely mistreated and brutalized when compared to what happened to their White counterparts, they were segregated to better accommodate these brutal acts.
As it turns out, the Nazis, in segregating the two groups, were merely reflecting what the United States itself had already instituted: a segregated military.
Most of my black fellow soldiers seemed resigned to our Jim Crow status, and some preferred it that way. For me, however, it was utterly ludicrous that a nation that prided itself on its democratic traditions and looked down on the Nazis for their racial attitudes would segregate soldiers who served in the same army and who were expected to fight the same enemy. Despite my misgivings, I learned to take the bitter with the sweet.[46]
Despite the common predicaments of black and white prisoners, the two groups were racially segregated in separate barracks.[47]
As a result of the segregation system and the shortage of replacement pilots graduating from Tuskegee, the 332nd pilots flew many more missions than their white counterparts.[48]
Hitler’s Forgotten Victims also presents the experience of Black POWs. The Nazis segregated Black prisoners from the rest of the camp population for extra special treatment of the fatal ki
nd. Often, in what was a breach of the Geneva Convention, Black prisoners were denied food and assigned highly dangerous jobs. Footage never aired before shows Black soldiers and civilians scavenging for scraps of food in garbage heaps at the Hemer POW camp near Dortmund in Northwest Germany. No one knows how many Black people died in the camps at the hands of the SS guards, producer Moise Shewa says, because Jews were demarcated as Jews, but Black people were demarcated by nationality.[49]
Not only black Germans suffered at the hands of the Nazis— black soldiers were also targets. Between 1939 and 1945, an estimated 200,000 black troops from African colonies were serving in Europe. The Nazis segregated black inmates for extra special treatment of the fatal kind.[50]
And to add stinging insult to irreparable injury, America even treated Nazi German POWs better than it did her own heroic Black soldiers!
According to [Mitchell] Higginbotham [a retired Tuskegee Airman], the black airmen were confined to quarters while German POWs held at the base were allowed to roam outside.[51]
One can only imagine the humiliation of having valiantly fought for God and country against a ruthless enemy, only to return home to see this same enemy, Nazi POWs, receive preferential treatment—unabashedly and shamelessly in plain sight.
Another example is when Black soldiers who had returned stateside from war had to ride in the back of the train while Nazi officers who were POWs sat in the front being served hot tea with the best china.
It gets worse. Black and White POWs were not just “racially segregated in separate barracks,” but there were also completely separate prison camps; and what went on in Black prison camps could be likened to something straight out of a horror movie.
The Plan to Take Back Africa!
While most perhaps have given it little thought, some have wondered why the famous Nazi German field marshal Erwin Rommel was in northern Africa in the first place.
Had not Germany already lost her colonies over two decades ago when it signed the treaty of Versailles?
What was Hitler’s interest in Africa? Why did Field Marshal Rommel, the shrewd “Desert Fox,” lead Hitler’s Afrika Korps there up until 1942 when British forces led by General Montgomery in Egypt stopped him?
Before these pertinent questions are explored, we turn our attention to a particularly disconcerting event in the despicable annals of Nazi German horrors, namely, the inconceivable experimentation on Black World War II soldiers from the United States!
While the complete discussion is not immediately provided below, we can still grasp the point being made.
He reported that in the vicinity of Stargard, Germany, there was a “Negro” prisoner-of-war camp where medical experiments had been performed on these POWs.[52]
While it is well known that the Nazis conducted medical experiments on Jews, Gypsies, and others, an infinitesimally small amount of the masses of mankind are aware that Blacks—and particularly African American soldiers—were victimized also. And what was the reason behind the diabolical experiments on Blacks?
Fischer performed such tests on Gypsies and scheduled similar tests for Jewish inmates at Sachsenhausen in 1942. Grawitz also reported that a Dr. Horneck, another SS physician who had performed tests on “Negro” prisoners of war in France, also achieved similar results. The experiments seemingly involved studying blacks to learn how whites could better adapt to tropical environments.[53] (Emphasis supplied.)
Yes, the Germans wanted to know how they could best survive the heat, humidity, and tropical environments of certain parts of Africa.
“But, why would they be interested in adapting to these types of environments in the first place?” an inquisitor might ask. As asked before, “Didn’t they already lose their African colonies?”
Indeed they did. Colonial Germany lost its African pearls. But there was a plan already in the works that history books are eerily silent on. What was the plan? Nazi Germany was to take back what Colonial Germany lost: Africa!
While the “master race” policies persisted during Wold War II, black POWs and others were subjected to medical experiments in Germany, supposedly as part of a larger Nazi plan for the conquest of “Mittelafrika”….
The “Mittelafrika” plan called for exploiting African resources to economically bolster Nazi Germany. To accomplish this goal, the Nazis planned to re-conquer the German colonies (as well as other African territories) surrendered after World War I. The idea was to resettle and enslave blacks… to expropriate black property and land … to form a police state under Heinrich Himmler’s direction … and to put into effect the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.[54]
In order to do all of this the Nazis had to learn how to become acclimated to the stifling, oppressive African sun, so they literally squeezed the life out of Black POWs in order to discover the high level of tolerance to the sun that was intrinsic to black skin.
We can now add “Melanin Marauders” to the list of things the Nazis could be called.
But, they only needed so many Black men for these experiments. So, what did they do with the other Black troops that were captured? What was their fate?
The Brutalization and Murder
of African American Soldiers
Below are a few (there are many more) cases, listed chronologically, complete with witness statements extracted from the official files of War Crime cases in the National Archives in Suitland, Maryland, that detail the horrifying fate of these brave men of war—these newfangled “Soldiers of Color” from across the Atlantic.
For unknown reasons, the depressing cases presented herewith have not been widely disseminated to the public. Tragically, there is reason to believe that more cases have yet to be declassified. (Frankly, these slipped through.)
On May 5, 1944, witnesses said “three colored American pilots” were executed by the Gestapo while incarcerated in a prison at Budapest, Hungary. The method of execution was death by hanging in a public square.[55]
On or about September 1, 1944, near Merzig, Germany, two former SS guards said they saw “Negro American soldiers being executed after they were ordered to dig their own graves.” [56]
On December 17, 1944, near the town of Wereth, Belgium[§§§§], eleven African American soldiers of the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion were brutally executed. Their bodies—hideously mutilated before and after the executions—were discovered lying in a cattle ditch partially covered by snow. Townspeople produced information that “an unknown SS unit committed the heinous crimes.”[57]
On March 28, 1945, Americans captured a German SS officer, Otto Vetter. In his possession was a personal letter stating he witnessed “two colored airmen clubbed to death by townspeople of Weinboella, Germany, after they were directed to perform the executions by the local Gestapo.”[58]
Ruhl accused other Gestapo guards of deliberately executing some of the black prisoners and burying their bodies in a bomb crater near the prison.[59]
On June 1, 1945, the 21st Army Group submitted a report to the United Nations War Crimes Commission stating that “Negroes” were used as slave laborers at Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany.[60]
According to a war crimes investigation dated February 15, 1946, the commander of the German 1st Battalion, 17th SS Infantry Division in France, ordered that “No Negro prisoners of war were to be taken alive.”[61]
They were not part of the German POW camp system, and their mistreatment violated the Geneva Convention.[62] [A German authority “gave orders to ‘kill all colored prisoners on sight, because they stink.’”] [63]
Though there were relatively few blacks in Germany, Hitler discriminated between black and white prisoners of war. Black soldiers captured during World War II were separated from their units and shot.
When the Germans tried to remove a black lieutenant from Martinique from his French comrades, his superior officer objected. “He is not black,” the colonel explained to the Germans. “He is an officer.”
Instead of shooting him, the Germans placed the man
in a prisoner of war camp according to the Geneva conventions. The lieutenant knew he was one of the lucky ones. A short time later, he managed to escape.
If Hitler had been successful in Africa, large numbers of black troops would have been shot.[64]
From a completely different source we find yet another testimony of someone who actually lived in Germany—a Black man—who heard firsthand accounts of not “fewer than a hundred” cases of Blacks being brutalized and murdered as did Kesting above, but “hundreds” of such “reliable reports” circulating around Germany.
Although they were never mentioned during the German war-crimes trials conducted by the Allies, there were hundreds of reliable reports about some of the most gruesome atrocities committed by German civilians and German military personnel, especially Waffen-SS, against black U.S. soldiers, including airmen who were forced to bail out over Germany or German-occupied territory. Efforts by some concerned eyewitnesses to bring the perpetrators to justice failed, partially because it became practically impossible to identify and locate the culprits and partially because of official apathy.[65]
“Sadly,” laments Owen Mills[*****], a Black man from Detroit, Michigan, “America has added insult to injury by never even mentioning the horror of what happened to their very own ‘Soldiers of Color’ during ‘the German war-crimes trials conducted by the Allies.’”
And Hollywood—like the rest of America, and far too many other concerns—has overlook these brave Black American soldiers. In fact, the entertainment capital of the world has an unenviable distinction about itself.
