Blacks in the Holocaust

Blacks in the Holocaust
The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. However, there was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups.
African German mulatto children were marginalized in German society, isolated socially and economically, and not allowed to attend university. Racial discrimination prohibited them from seeking most jobs, including service in the military. With the Nazi rise to power they became a target of racial and population policy. By 1937, the Gestapo (German secret state police) had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments; others mysteriously "disappeared."
The racist nature of Adolf Hitler's regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when Hitler allowed 18 African American athletes to compete for the US team. However, permission to compete was granted by the International Olympic Committee and not by the host country. Adult African Germans were also victims. Some African Americans, caught in Germanoccupied Europe during World War II, became victims of the Nazi regime. Many were arrested as an enemy alien and held in various types of camps. Black prisoners of war faced illegal incarceration and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis, who did not uphold the regulations imposed by the Geneva Convention (international agreement on the conduct of war and the treatment of wounded and captured soldiers. Black soldiers of the American, French, and British armies were worked to death on construction projects or died as a result of mistreatment in concentration or prisoner-of-war camps. Others were never even incarcerated, but were instead immediately killed by the SS or Gestapo. (Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
15 Facts about Blacks in the Holocaust
1. Many blacks came to Germany as students, artisans, entertainers, former soldiers, and low-level colonial officials.
2. There was no systematic program for their elimination as there was for Jews and other groups.
3. Hitler created racists propaganda about blacks during his reign in Germany.
4. The children of black soldiers and German women in the Rhineland area of Germany were labeled the "Rhineland Bastards" and were secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized. Many of them were subjected to medical experiments, others disappeared.

5. Black entertainers were boycotted when the Nazis took power under the hand of Hitler.
6. Hitler accused the Jews of brining in the blacks with the clear aim of ruining the white race through so-called "bastardization."
7. Black-German mulatto children were not allowed to attend universities and were prohibited from seeking most jobs and serving in the military.
8. Many African-Americans caught in German occupied Europe were imprisoned in Axis internment camps for alien nationals.
9. Black prisoners of war were illegally incarcerated and mistreated through forced labor at concentration camps or died of mistreatment. Others were never incarcerated, and were instead immediately hilled by the SS or Gestapo.
10.Some African-American members of the United States Armed forces were liberators and witnesses to Nazi atrocities.
11.Despite extraordinary record keeping by the Germans of tracking the deaths of victims, German officials did not keep track of black deaths due to the idea that blacks were considered sub-human.
12.Most German blacks could not escape the wrath of Hitler as they were German citizens with German passports and had nowhere else to go.
13.Black and mixed-race Germans toured in the Hillerkus Afrikaschau circuses, films, and shows to escape persecution by Hitler and his regime.
14. African-American artist Josephine Baker fought as a French Resistance officer for the victims of the Holocaust and received recognition by the French Republic who provided her with a state funeral upon her death in 1970.
15.The first concentration camp created by Germany was first built in Namibia in 1904 to exterminate the blacks there.