Berlin -based German historian Kaitharina Ogantoy said, “I think people did not realize that Nazi’s time in Germany was only 12 years old. 12 years what can do for society and what can be, it does not need to be 50 years or 100 years.”Crime, subjugation, racism, slavery and massacre have been well documented against Jewish, Roma, Sinty, LGBTQ+ and other communities. But for the black community of Germany, it is not easy for crimes and abuses to be recognized.Historian Robbie Atcan, a historian at the University of Sheffield Holm in Britain, has studied black communities of Germany for 20 years. He said that there was a reluctance to identify and accept in German society that black people had been part of Germany since the end of the 1800s.“We are talking about those who crossed the boundaries, which have moved forward, and we are talking about a time period where the Nazis themselves destroyed the documents, so it was difficult to find out the information,” he told DW.“I think it is being asleep by a lot of historians. And there is a lack of common public and educational knowledge about this period.”In the 1880s, the German Empire in Africa brought Germany into contact with the Africans, their labor and the resources of their regions. The colonies consisted of Cameroon, Togo, German East Africa and Namibia, which later lost after German’s defeat in World War I.While accurate figures are not known, several thousand people of African reached Germany from various regions of Africa, Caribbean, South America and the United States.
Nazi abuses become daily life
In 1929, the black minority of Germany was already marginalized due to great depression. But the racist nature of Nazi regime in 1933 joined that difficulty.“When the Nazis come to power, whoever wants to become racist, whoever agrees with his perspective can say these things on the streets with enthusiasm, physically, orally, misbehave people. They have free to do so,” said Atcon.This in turn made black residents publicly seen more difficult, especially with white wives and children.Several thousand black people living in Germany were seen racially as inferior. During this era from 1933 to 1945, the Nazis used racial laws and policies to ban the economic and social opportunities of black people in Germany.“At a local level, many families will be effectively excluded from their apartments to make way for Nazi supporters or party members.” “Some black Germans who have businesses are clearly targeted.”An example of this is a successful Cameronian trader Mandenga Dike in Germany, who lost his business and became stateless with his family when the Nazis came to power in 1933.
From forced sterilization to publicity films
Black people were disturbed, imprisoned, sterilized or used.Adolf Hitler, Nazi dictator who ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945, targeted biraciel children living in Rhinland, who were tracked by Gupta police, or guestapo, and sterilized on secret order.Atcan says that these actions proved that “the intention of massacre” was.“This does not mean that all black people will be sterilized, but if you see it in a high policy level and if you see the way the local policing forces have worked, they understood the intention,” he said.The introduction of Nurnberg race laws was one of the corners of Nazi Racery Policy. Depending on the prototype developed to separate white people from black people during the colonial era of Germany in Africa, with other racial restrictions, laws prohibited marriage and sexual relations between German Jews and so -called Aryans.The use of the word “Aryan” is considered “inferior” against Jews and other groups. At that time the interior minister Wilhem Fri is considered to be black by men and women.The “German Africa Show”, known as the “Dutash Africa-Shah”, a resident of Togoles-German, Kasi Bruce, had opportunities to survive financially for black people. However, Nazi Governance Limited who could participate in touring exhibitions.Torrential promotional films where black people were used as conservatively cast to play the role of servants, used by the government as part of the hopes of re -achieving their lost colonial regions by Germany.
Using literature to tell Ephro-German History
Using the selection of stories of life, Katrina Ogantoy was able to detect black German experiences during the Nazi era.Groundbreaking anthology “Farbe Bekenon”, which later showed our colors in English. Afro-German women were published as speaking, “represented an important moment to the Afro-German community and intersection feminism. The book, written by the heavenly poet May Ayim, combines historical analysis, interviews, personal testimony and poetry to detect racism in Germany.Through her research, she came to political singer Fasia Jansen, actor Theodore Vonja Michael and journalist Hans Massakoi. His stories were of resistance and courage during Nazi rule.Although Ogantoy was born 14 years after World War II from a white German mother and a black Nigerian father, his identity created a platform to tell these stories.“There [are] Very few people who do this research. There are two or three more scholars who do this research on black people in Nazi time, “he told DW.For Ogantoy, the presence and contribution of the black community in Germany has been reduced. For many people, Anton Wilhelm AMO, who became the first African -born scholar to receive a doctorate from a European University, became known only when a Berlin Street was named after him in 2021.
Start by changing education courses
Ogantoy says that Afro German history should enjoy more coverage in school curriculum.“It is good for people to pass it through biography through people’s stories … Because this is the easiest way to remember people, “he explained.Other methods are being included in Germany, the memorials in Berlin are through a planetary piece.In 2022, Theodore Vonja Michael Library in Colon was opened as a house for black people stories, and promoted research on identity, race and culture. A clear account of his life as a black person in the 20th -century Germany, the release of the library was inspired by the release of “My Father Ek German”.
move on
But the fight for recognition and acceptance is over, and a new generation should struggle with a German society that is shifting to the right to the right.Sophie Osen Akihi, a member of the Ephro-Dysporic Educationist Network (ADAN), emphasizes the importance of identifying that no one can have an impact to run structural changes.He said, “It will not help stay in the afflicted mode and will complain instead of purpose to include profession and power in the decision making table, or if not, build your own construction,” he told DW.Through their organization, Akihi and his colleagues attempted to ensure that the decision -making migrants and minorities understand the realities faced, and address them.In other ways, young people are trying to educate the history of Germany, with their tour operations in Berlin through directed city tours such as Justice Mivemba, called Desta (DiColonial Stadfrung).“I want to make normal to talk about colonialism in an important way, and I know that a lot of people struggle with it. But I am also positively surprised to know that there are many white people, there are many white Germans who are ready to get that important perspective,” he told D.W. She also hopes that Germany’s colonial history will have more visibility.
