NAZI Racial Assessments: Backs


Figure 1.--Here German doctors examine two black boys some time in the in the 1930s, we think in Southwest Africa which had become a British/South African Mandate after World War I. The boys seem to be African children rather than the children born in the Rhineland to French colonial troops and German mothers. A reader writes, "I believe that the picture was taken in Southwest Africa (Namibia now). I think that the two German docters are wearing shorts, a typical hot-weather attire. In Germany they would have been wearing a white coat at that time (1930s)." Unfortunately we have no details on the circumstances depicted here. Some Germans stayed in Southwest Africa after Worlkd War I. While we do not know what is going on here, it strikes us unusual that a second man is present in the examination.

Colonial authorities delt severly with the black populations in their African colonies. The Germans were particularly brutal. The most egrefious incident was the Herero War (1904) in Southwest Africa. Germany lost its African colonies in World War I. The French used colonial troops in the occupation of the Rhineland, giving rise to considerable resentment. When the NAZIs seized power, blacks were not an immediate target of the Holocaust. Several groups were classified by the NAZIs as inferior people and blacks in particular were singled out in NAZI hate propaganda. NAZI attitudes toward Blacks suggest that they would have become so eventually had they won World War II. Hitler viewed blacks as half apes and humans. There was considerable animosity toward Blacks used by the French as occupation troops in the Rhineland after World War I. The NAZIs called them the 'Rhineland bastards' When the NAZIs seized power, many of the children of black French soldiers and German women were sterilized. Here my information is still very limited. Not all were sterilized and we are not sure how this worked. It may have depended on their doctors. The NAZIs made propaganda films showing Blacks in the same vicious ways as their propaganda films about Jews. Special targets were Black French soldiers and American Blacks. In this regard it should be noted that many early NAZI actions against the Jews were based in part on American segregation laws aimed at Blacks. Blacks seemed to have survived the NAZI era because there were so few of them. One notable black child growing up in NAZI Germany was the son of a former Liberian diplomat. He grew up and went to school during the NAZI era. He was not allowed, however, to join the Hitler Youth--a great disappointment. Nor was he allowed to persue his education. He became an machinist appretice. After the War he emmigrated to America and became the Managing Editor of Ebony Magazine. [Massaquoi] He believes he avoided te fate of the Jews primarily because there were so few blacks in Germany that they were a low priority and not seen as a racial threat.

African Colonies

Colonial authorities delt severly with the black populations in their African colonies. The Germans were particularly brutal. The most egrefious incident was the Herero War (1904) in Southwest Africa.

Immigrants

There were virtually no Africans anywhere in Europe until the Europens began its maritime outreast. One result was the Atlantic slave trade. Most the captive Africans were hipped to Brazilian and the Caribbeanand a relatively small number to the United States. A small number made it to Europe. Once in Europe their status varied, but for the most part were not slaves. Most were found in the mariime counties, but a few made their way to Germany which was thelast major European cuntry to be unified (1871). It is at this point that Germany begins building a colonial empire, cquiring everal colonies in Africa and Oceania. the number of blacks in Germany increased from a handful to a small number, perhaps 20,000=25,000 individuals. Most came from the country's African colonies. They included a wide rane of individuals who came to Germany for a range of reasins. They included students, arttists, entertainers, members of the colnial militia, former low-level colonial officials, tax collectors, and mission workers. Once Germany lost its colonies fter orld War I, this flow for the most part ceased.

French Colonial Occupation Troops: The Rhineland

As with virtually everything Hitler did not like--he blamed it on the Jews. He wrote, "It was, and is, the Jew who brought negroes to the Rhine, brought them with the same aim and with deliberate intent to destroy the white race he hates by persistent bastardisation, to hurl it from the cultural and political heights it has attained, and to ascend them as its masters." The French used colonial troops in the occupation of the Rhineland, giving rise to considerable resentment. Some 0.2 milliom French troops occupied the Rhineland after World War I. This included African colonial troops. The ineviable occurred. Some of the Fremch occupation soldiers married German women and raised their children in Germany. Other German women had children with the occupation troops wuthout marrige or any permant relationship. And this included the French African soldiers. Because of German racial aditutues, there was considerable animosity toward Blacks used by the French as occupation troops in the Rhineland after World War I. The Germans, and not only the NAZIs, began calling them the 'Rhineland bastards' (Rhineland Mischlingers). The term appeared in the press. There is no precise accounting, but more than 800 bi-racial children are believed to be living in the Rhineland region at the time the NAZIs seized power. The children involved were not only vilified because they were part back, but becaused they were mixed race. The mixing itself was seen as a race crime. sith the Jews, the isolation, segregation and attempted distruction of Germany’s small black population was carried out in steps. This of course wxactly how the NAZIs orchestrated the Jewish Holocaust. Some of the families and the older children wisely fled Germany. As part of their eugenics effort, the NAZIs almost immediately upon seizing power proclaimed a new law providing a legal basis for forced sterilisation of disabled people, Gypsies, and blacks (July 14, 1933). [Muellar-Hill] Afro-German children were marginalised. Apparently because of their small numbers and historic novely, they did not get the attebtion the NAZIs focused on Jews. They were, however isolated both socially and economically. Unlike Jews, they were allowed to attend German schools. They were not, however, pemitted to pursue university studies. And professional as well as many other jobs were closed off to them. The Nuremberg Laws changed their legal status (September 1935). The Laws made miscegenation a crime. Mixed marriages between Aryans and others were invalidared. Afro-German woman who got pregnant was forced to have an abortion. German doctors cooperated fully with the new kaws.

Racial Assessment

Several groups were classified by the NAZIs as inferior people and blacks in particular were singled out in NAZI hate propaganda. NAZI attitudes toward Blacks suggest that they would have become so eventually had they won World War II. Hitler viewed blacks as half ape and half human. The African origins of humanity was not yet understood and had t been suggest he would have denied it. He made no secret of his attitude toward blacks. He mentions blacks many times in Mein Kampf. Here are a few of the many ugly references:

"The Jews were responsible for bringing negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate." [Hitler}

"For in a world which would be composed of mongrels and negroids all ideals of human beauty and nobility and all hopes of an idealized future for our humanity would be lost forever." [Hitler}

"From time to time our illustrated papers publish, for the edification of the German philistine, the news that in some quarter or other of the globe, and for the first time in that locality, a Negro has become a lawyer, a teacher, a pastor, even a grand opera tenor or something else of that kind . While the bourgeois blockhead stares with amazed admiration at the notice that tells hi m how marvellous are the achievements of our modern educational technique, the more cunning Jew sees in this fact a new proof to be utilized for the theory with which he wants to infect the public, namely that all men are equal. It does not dawn on the murky bourgeois mind that the fact which is published for him is a sin against reason itself , that it is an act of criminal insanity to train a being who is only an anthropoid by bi rth until the pretence can be made that he has been turned into a lawyer; while, on the other hand, millions who belong to the most civilized races have to remain in positions which are unworthy of their cultural level. The bourgeois mind does not realize that it is a sin against the will of the eternal Creator to allow hundreds of thousands of highly gifted people to remain floundering in the swamp of proletarian misery while Hottentots and Zulus are drilled to fill positions in the intellectual professions. For here we have the product only of a drilling technique, just as in the case of the performing dog. If the same amount of care and effort were applied among intelligent races each individual would become a thousand times more capable in such matters." [Hitler}

The latter quote was referenced in the Commons (April 21, 1936) when it was learned that Prime Minister Chamberlain was advocating turning colonies over to Hitler as part of his appeasemnt effort. This particularly interesting because returning former Germam colonies to the NAZIs was a matter of little interest to Hitler and not something he was even demanding. [Gilbert, pp. 85-88.]

Propaganda

The NAZIs made propaganda films showing Blacks in the same vicious ways as their propaganda films about Jews. Special targets were Black French soldiers and American Blacks. They were epicted in various streo-typical ways. When referring to Afro-Americans, jazz music was seen as a kind of musical crime.

Repression

Well before Hitler and the NAZIs seuzed power Germany’s small black population expeienced racial discrimination and sporadic street violence. Most German government and religious officials refused to even register interracial marriages or births, although there was no legal basis for this. Eugenics was a widely accepted docrtrine and both blacks and Afro German children were commonly seen as inferior. Once in power, repression became more organized and acquired legal sanction. When the NAZIs seized power, many of the children of black French soldiers and German women were sterilized. Here our information is still very limited. Not all were sterilized and we are not sure how this worked. It may have depended on their doctors. One should not think that NAZIs policies before and during the War would have been permanent. NAZI think tanks were busy during the War planning out how to pursue National Scocialism once the War was won and all of Europe was theirs. In the East, Generalplan Ost was, for example, was given low priority uring the War because it was impairing the War effort. For the West], the NAZIs were also deceloping plans. France would disappear. It was to be divided into several provincial states. In Germany, there were also plans to go after Mischlinger part Jews who had been assed over for Holocaust selection. When the NAZIs seized power, blacks were not an immediate target of the Holocaust. Cleansing the Reich of blacks and mulattoes would have inevitably followed.

American Segregation

In this regard it should be noted that many early NAZI actions against the Jews were based in part on American segregation laws aimed at Blacks. Blacks seemed to have survived the NAZI era because there were so few of them.

Individuals

One notable black child growing up in NAZI Germany was the son of a former Liberian diplomat. He grew up and went to school during the NAZI era. He was not allowed, however, to join the Hitler Youth--a great disappointment. Nor was he allowed to persue his education. He became an machinist appretice. After the War he emmigrated to America and became the Managing Editor of Ebony Magazine. [Massaquoi] He believes he avoided te fate of the Jews primarily because there were so few blacks in Germany that they were a low priority and not seen as a racial threat.

Sources

Carr, Firpo. Germany’s Black Holocaust: 1890-1945.

Gilbert, Martin and Richad Gott, The Appeasers (Phoenix Oress: London, 2000), 444p.

Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf.

Massaquoi, Hans J. Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany.

Muellar-Hill, Benno. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others in Germany, 1933-1945.





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Created: 11:11 PM 5/20/2010
Last updated: 2:43 AM 7/31/2017