Black Victims of the Nazis

The Voice online dedicated an article to one of the less known groups victimised by the Nazis: Germans (and later, people from occupied Europe) who were Black, or of African heritage.

There were an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 black people living in Germany at the time of Hitler coming to power. Some were Africans who had come from German colonies, some from the French African troops who had stayed in Germany after the First World War, and others from other parts of the world who were working in Germany often as entertainers.

Prior to Hitler coming to power, black entertainers were popular in Germany, but the Nazi hatred of other ‘inferior’ races led to a ban on Jazz music which was seen as ‘corrupt negro music’.

While not subject to an orgainsed, official policy of ethnic extermination like the Jews, black people did not escape the ideology of German racial purity. Apart from those that were forcibly sterilised, others mysteriously disappeared, or ended being used for medical experiments.

Mixed-race people were not allowed to go to university, prevented from joining the military and kept out of many jobs. It was a terrifying time because no person of black origin felt safe. Not knowing if one day there time may be up.

(SOURCE: The Voice Online, The forgotten black victims of Nazi Germany ).

The Voice adds: The Imperial War Museum in London will feature a lecture ‘Black Victims of the Nazis’ on February 22 , 1.00pm - 4.30pm at Museum Conference Room. The lecture will focus on the Black victims of Nazi persecution before and during the Second World War. Films will include Black Victims of the Nazis, about the Black population in Germany during the Second World War.

In Berlin, you can find Stolperstein for one of the Afro-German victims of Nazism, actor Bayume Mohamed Husen, who was murdered in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.