"More of your conversation would infect my brain." -William Shakespeare in Coriolanus Act II, scene i

Saturday, November 18, 2006

African-Germans? Maybe.

[After reading a selection from Elie Wiesel's Night, our Honors English II class is discussing Adolf Hitler's role in World War II.]

Teacher: Hitler would put just about anyone in his Nazi concentration camps... Jews, Gypsies, anyone who didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes.
Girl: What about African-Americans... what would he do to them?
Me (to myself): I doubt there were very many African Americans in Germany.
Teacher: Black people? Oh, I don't know. He probably would have done the same.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I know this is quite a while after your post, but..

Yes there were African-Germans in Germany at the time of the rise of Hitler. There recently was a TV movie in German entitled "Neger, Neger Schornsteinfeger" which discussed that very topic.

Today there are many "Afro-Deutsche" mainly from Ghana and African-American soldiers marrying German women.

Note to your teahcer: Nordic traits was NOT a requisite for ending up in concentration camps. Origianlly they were for political prisoners, dessenters, etc. It was later that they were used for Jews, Gypsies, Homsexuals, etc. and at the very end for extermination.

You should be able to find numerous resources on the internet.