Mosaic – Victims of Nazi Persecution

Nazi Persecution of Black People

Racism towards black people was common inEurope and America in the 19th and early 20thcenturies. Although such prejudices had a longhistory, they increased in this period with thedevelopment of Social Darwinism, a ‘pseudo-science’ which claimed that some racial groupswere genetically superior to others. These ideaswere used to justify European imperialism in thelate 19th century when almost the whole ofAfrica was invaded and occupied by severalcountries.

The Europeans who settled in the colonies often hadextremely racist attitudes towards Africans, and theGerman empire was no exception. When Germany lostits colonies after the First World War, many Germansreturned home and contributed to the growth of far-right groups after 1918. At the same time, however,imperialism also led to the development of a blackpopulation in Germany. Some Africans, mainly youngmen, came to work or study in Germany and they werejoined after World War I by others who had served theGermans as soldiers or officials. As a result, there were20,000 to 25,000 members of the ‘Afrodeutsch’community in interwar Germany.

Germany’s black population included a significantnumber of people from mixed-race families. They wereusually the children of either German colonialists whohad married African women or of white women whohad relationships with black people working inGermany. This shows that racism was not universal. Infact, although black people often encounteredprejudice in the 1920s, some elements of black culturebecame popular in Germany, especially jazz music. Inmajor cities such as Berlin black and white musicians(many of them Americans) performed to mainly whiteaudiences.

As Germany’s black population was small, it was notgenerally a major concern for racist groups such as theNazi Party which emerged in the 1920s. When the far-right did focus on non-whites, children of mixed-raceorigin were the main targets because they were seenas a threat to the ‘purity’ of the German race. This wasparticularly the case with the so-called ‘RhinelandBastards’. After the First World War, the Rhinelandregion of western Germany was occupied by the Britishand French armies until 1930. Many of the Frenchsoldiers were from African colonies and were widelyhated: many Germans believed it was humiliating forwhite people to be ordered around by black Africans.When some local women had relationships with theAfrican soldiers, they were regarded as ‘traitors’ toGermany. Between 600 and 800 mixed-race childrenwere born from these relationships and came to beseen by nationalists as a symbol of racial ‘disgrace’.

Nazi Persecutionof Black People

It is not surprising, therefore, that the ‘RhinelandBastards’ were the first black victims of the Nazis. InApril 1933, the Nazi leader Hermann Göring ordereda study to count the numbers of these children. Theresults were passed to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute ofAnthropology which was one of the leading centresof so-called ‘racial science’ in Germany. Itrecommended that the children be sterilized toprevent their ‘alien blood’ from being passed on toother Germans. A law passed by the Nazis in 1933had allowed the compulsory sterilization of peoplewith supposedly hereditary illnesses, especiallydisabled people; it was now applied to the childrenfrom the Rhineland. Beginning in 1937, approximately400 people, most of them young teenagers, werearrested and forced to undergo operations, oftenwithout anaesthetic, to prevent them having children.There is also evidence that some were victims ofmedical experiments.

These policies were not applied to other blackGermans, including mixed-race children from otherparts of the country. However, they did face widespreaddiscrimination which made it difficult to get jobs andthey were forbidden to attend university. Some blackpeople were able to make careers in the entertainmentindustry, taking small roles in films or performing intravelling circus-style shows of ‘traditional Africandance and song’ which were partly intended to showthe supposed ‘inferiority’ of black culture. A moreopenly racist policy was followed towards jazz, whichthe Nazis described as ‘degenerate music’. Jazz waspresented as a ‘primitive’ form of music which had beenexploited by American Jews to corrupt German society.It was therefore banned from public radio in 1935 andNazi propaganda used racist images in an attempt todiscredit it. Even though it became increasingly difficultto buy jazz records, some white teenagers, mainly inHamburg and Berlin, continued to listen to jazz in clubsor their homes. In August 1941 more than 300 of

these ‘Swingjugend’ (‘Swing Youth’) were arrested;some were eventually sent to concentration camps –essentially for listening to black music!

Some black people, mainly American, British andFrench prisoners of war, also found themselves caughtin the Nazi camp system. There is evidence that theywere singled out for mistreatment or even murder bycamp guards. In addition, some black soldiers wereused as slave labourers by the German army. In 1943, agroup of black German men were also sent to a labourcamp near Berlin. Many of them had actually beenconscripted for the army but had been rejectedbecause of their colour; instead they were made towork as slaves for 72 hours a week.

The fate of black people under the Nazis was littleknown for many decades after the Second World War.This was partly because most victims of the sterilizationcampaign were understandably reluctant to talk abouttheir experiences in public. However, it also reflected ageneral lack of public interest in their case. Even today,Hitler’s black victims do not receive any compensation.

Designed and published by The Strategy and Communications Department of The National Union of Teachers – www.teachers.org.ukOrigination by Paragraphics – www.paragraphics.co.uk – 8444/10/12

Further materials will become availablethrough the course of the joint project.

For further information go toNational Union of Teacherswww.teachers.org.uk andHolocaust Educational Trustwww.het.org.uk

This brochure can be used with thefollowing items

What was ‘racial science’?

What does ‘Afrodeutsch’mean?

Who has the right to decidewho can have children?

Designed and published by The Strategy and Communications Department of The National Union of Teachers – www.teachers.org.uk Origination by Paragraphics – www.paragraphics.co.uk – 8442/10/12

Mosaic – Victims of Nazi Persecution

Cop

yright USHMM

Mosaic – Victims of Nazi Persecution

TheodorWONJA

MICHAEL

A slide for a lecture on genetics showing the child of a German woman and African soldier – 1936. Copyright USHMM

Photo of Theodor: FilmInitiativ Köln e.V. (Sebastian Fischer)