http://edition.cnn.com//2017/07/21/...-holocaust-rhineland-children-film/index.html Human exhibits and sterilization: The fate of Afro Germans under Nazis By Nosmot Gbadamosi, CNN Updated 1240 GMT (2040 HKT) July 26, 2017 A new film aims to highlight a Nazi "secret" mission to sterilize hundreds of Afro German children. (CNN)In 1937, mixed race children living in the Rhineland were tracked down by the Gestapo and sterilized on "secret order." Some were later the subject of medical experiments, while others vanished. "There were known to be around 800 Rhineland children at the time," says historian Eve Rosenhaft, professor of German Historical Studies, at the University of Liverpool. It was a little known part of Holocaust history until Mo Abudu, chief executive of Nigerian media network EbonyLife TV, read an online article by Rosenhaft on the plight of these children. "When I read about it [the article] I just thought we need to put this to screen," says Abudu. "There are many children in that era born of African and German parentage and I felt what happened to those people. Their stories are totally untold." EbonyLife TV intends to tell their stories through a film called "Ava and Duante." The film is set in an undisclosed location in Europe and will focus on the plight of Afro Germans who suffered persecution under Hitler. Essentially these children were pulled from school, off the streets and bundled into vans, taken to medical facilities and sterilized." Nicole Brown, researcher It is the studio's first foray into the international film market and a dramatic change in subject matter for Nollywood, which is famous for producing movies that focus on lighthearted story lines. "I don't see this as a Nollywood film at all," says Abudu. "I believe this is a film that has global appeal." In developing the film's plot, she commissioned scriptwriter Nicole Brown to further investigate. Caption: Two survivors prepare food outside the barracks. The man on the right is thought to be Jean (Johnny) Voste, born in Belgian Congo -- the only black prisoner in Dachau. Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Frank Manucci Date: May 1945 A story buried "Essentially these children were pulled from school, off the streets and bundled into vans, taken to medical facilities and sterilized," says Brown. "Although their births were recorded, what happened to almost the majority of them is unknown," she adds. "In a way we wanted to tell a story that had been buried for so long." Thousands of black people were living in Germany when Hitler came to power. Some were from former colonial countries. Others, mainly in the Rhineland, were the offspring of World War I colonial troops and German mothers. mixed marriages were banned. Although not sterilized, Michael ended up in a forced labor camp when he was 18. Born in 1925, he was the youngest son of an African and a white German mother. His father, Theophilus Wonja Michael had arrived in 1894 from Cameroon (then part of the German empire) to study and work. Upon arrival, Michael's father would quickly realize the only occupation available was playing the "exotic African" in human exhibition shows. The whole family would later take part, including Michael and his three siblings. Human exhibitions "Völkerschau" translated as "human shows," stems from the 15th century. According to research by German historian Anne Dreesbach, world explorers such as Christopher Columbus brought "exotic" native people home for display. Wild animal merchant Carl Hagenbeck popularized "Völkerschau" in Germany in 1874. He struck upon the idea of an exhibition where you could see animals and humans from lands afar in their "natural" state. By the 1930s, Dreesbach says there were some 400 human exhibitions in Germany. sterilized. Under the laws of Nuremberg, this was an offense against the Aryan race ... after the war it was love when we married." Theodor Michael Theoretically he could have tried to escape, says Michael. Others had attempted to do so. But where would he go? "Because of my African appearance it was impossible to make a single step in the then white world, without being noticed every time by everyone," he says. Soviet Troops liberated the camp in 1945. After the war he married a white refugee. The marriage lasted 47 years before the death of his wife in 1994. "Under the laws of Nuremberg, this was an offense against the Aryan race and due to persecution. It was of course not so after the war ... it was love when we married," he recalls. Having survived the Nazi era, it would be decades before Michael was finally able to tell his own story in an autobiography, breaking a long held silence. "My children and even more my grandchildren urged me to write," says Michael. "All this couldn't happen until I had gained some distance from my former life... "I never thought that this book would become international interest," he says. "We definitely wanted to highlight the horror inflicted on these children," says the film's scriptwriter. They looked at the life of Afro German Gert Schramm, who shares a story similar story to Michael's. They were there till 11 a.m. just standing there outside in the snow and it was so very cold and they'd had no food or water." The black prisoner of Buchenwald Born in 1928 in the sweeping medieval city of Erfurt in East Germany, Schramm was the child of an African-American father and German mother at a time when racial tensions had begun to simmer. At 15, he became a "political prisoner" in Buchenwald concentration camp and was threatened with sterilization. On the reason for his internment, "all the evidence suggests it really was because he was mixed blood," says Rosenhaft. "These are stories out there but it's not in anyone's consciousness," Mo Abudu, chief executive, EbonyLife TV His friend, Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, recalls Schramm telling her, "at 5 a.m. in the morning they would be told to line up. ... "He remembered one morning they were there 'til 11 a.m. just standing there outside in the snow and it was so very cold and they'd had no food or water. Daily they were given something resembling soup but it was not soup." They were liberated by US soldiers in 1945. Herzberger-fofana believes he never fully recovered from his country's rejection of him just because of his skin color. "He was an unhappy man," she says. Schramm passed away on April 18 last year. "These are stories out there but it's not in anyone's consciousness," says Abudu. 'Records were destroyed' On the script, Brown was keen to ensure these monumental life experiences would not be condensed to "torture," but that the story would be about hope. "We could have had much of the film in a concentration camp where they do suffer terribly there or they do end up in a gas chamber. ... "But we felt that wasn't the story here. Instead we focused more on their plight in terms of their color in that environment," explains Brown. "It was important what angle we had in the story," she says. "Getting the script right took months," adds Abudu. There were 15 weeks of revisions. Brown believes one of the reasons these stories were sidelined for so long was the numbers affected. "You are talking about millions of Jewish people dying at the hands of Hitler ... in the greater scheme of the Holocaust and how many children perished, it sounds horrible to say the words, but 800 mixed race children doesn't sound a lot, but that's still 800 children, regardless, that many people around the world didn't know existed," she says. Another "problem is that the Nazis destroyed a lot of their records. There's not many black people left in Germany post 1945 who could then have been asked about what happened to them. There is no visible community as such by that point," adds Aitken. EbonyLife is drawing up a casting list to begin filming later this year. For the few survivors who remain, it's a memory that still haunts. Race "still plays too great a role in human relations," Michael says. "It is generally not noticed that human beings have only one root [have the same origin]." 'Ava and Duante' is scheduled for theater release late 2018.
I read about this for many years. Ever since I read J.A.Rogers' book Sex and Race Part I had I read about the Afro-Germans. In the threads in the past I had mentioned it like the children of Black French colonial troops in the Ruhr Valley etc.
Is there a thread where posters disscussed J.A. Roger's "Sex and Race" books? I'm interested in reading them.
There is a fascinating and gripping read, "Destined to Witness" https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060959616/destined-to-witness. I highly recommend it, the book details the true life story of Hans Massaquoi, son of a Black diplomat and White German mother who grew up in the time of Hitler.
I heard of the book and Mr.Massaquoi wrote a second book but it is not translated into English. Plus in one of his pieces in Ebony magazine there was a photo of him,his mother,and family. I mentioned his death in a past thread years back.
