What happened to black Germans under the Nazis? |
What happened to black Germans under the Nazis?
The Conversation (US Pilot): Academic rigor, journalistic flair
2016-01-26
Eve Rosenhaft, Professor of German Historical Studies
University of Liverpool
The fact that we officially commemorate the Holocaust on January 27, the date of the liberation of Auschwitz, means that remembrance of Nazi crimes focuses on the systematic mass murder of Europe’s Jews.
The other victims of Nazi racism, including Europe’s Sinti and Roma are now routinely named in commemoration, but not all survivors have had equal opportunities to have their story heard. One group of victims who have yet to be publicly memorialised is black Germans.
All those voices need to be heard, not only for the sake of the survivors, but because we need to see how varied the expressions of Nazi racism were if we are to understand the lessons of the Holocaust for today.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, there were understood to have been some thousands of black people living in Germany – they were never counted and estimates vary widely. At the heart of an emerging black community was a group of men from Germany’s own African colonies (which were lost under the peace treaty that ended World War I) and their German wives…
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Tags: Afro-Germans, Eve Rosenhaft, Germany, The Conversation, The Conversation (US Pilot)