i thought this was an interesting pic…he wearing a swaz on his sweater…a very good book i might add also
doug
There was a German TV movie made about Hans Jürgen Massaquoi and his story:
This will be the Negro guy Sven Hassel hints at in one of his books, “Liquidate Paris” I think.
Regards, Uyraell.
So how did that work out for him?
Look here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Jürgen_Massaquoi (in German)
or here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Jürgen_Massaquoi (in English)
My mom and dad always claim they never ever saw a black person until they emigrated to Canada. I think they were telling the truth but sometimes I wonder. They also claim they never saw a banana cause the war made stuch stuff a luxury to buy. I find it hard to beleive there were no blacks in Germany during the war, but if that was the case, we have come a long way:)
There were in fact very few blacks in Germany until after WW2. Part of the reason was the racism, the lack of (major) slavery and the lack of long term colonies in Africa.
My grandma saw the first black person in her entire life when the US Army marched into her hometown. She and her friends were freaked out, they didn’t even know people like that existed. (She was in her mid-Teens)
That of course doesn’t mean there weren’t any at all - but only very few.
By now there’s more Blacks in Germany because of several reasons: Globalization, children of US/Canadian soldiers (those that didn’t move to the US), relatively little racism as well as the EU making it possible for UK, French, Dutch, Spanish, etc citizens to move and settle pretty freely over all of Europe.
But while they appear as a major minority in the US and Canada, they’re a minor minority (sounds funny) in Germany, the biggest ‘minorities’ would probably be Turks, Russians and Poles, if I’m not mistaken…
Not that one would cite Sven Hassel as a reliable source. . . but in the book at least the black guy does well as a soldier. As to being accepted by Sven Hassel’s unit, well hell, they had already worked with asiatics and others.
I don’t suppose it would make any difference.
As a former soldier said to me once:
“When the shit hits the fan, and the bullets and frags are flying, you really don’t give a damn what colour the guy next to you is: you just hope to god he’s getting rounds downrange and shielding you as you shield him.”
Regards, Uyraell.