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Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi
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A great deal of Holocaust survival stories revolve around disguise--many Jews were forced into impersonation by the desperateness of their plight. Imagine if a person, by the accident of birth, was deigned a target of Nazi hatred but hadn't an option of disguise.
The son of a well-to-do African and a white German nurse, Hans lived a privileged toddler's life befitting the grandson of a diplomat. Concern for Hans's frail health caused his mother to remain with him in Germany when his grandfather and father were compelled to return to Liberia. He and his mother become part of Hamburg's poor working class, forced to live in a cramped attic apartment without hot water and electricity. But their change in social status was to be only the beginning of their hardships.
For twelve agonizing years following Hitler's rise to power, Hans, like all non-Aryans, was dehumanized and devalued by the Nazis. Living in constant fear of death, by either the Gestapo executioners or Allied bombs, Hans's existence became increasingly precarious until liberation by British troops in 1945.
What sets Hans's story apart from other memoirs of the Holocaust era is that his high visibility made him an easily recognizable target, stranded without the comfort of a racial community of any sort. Destined to Witness is a memoir filled with courage, feeling, and intelligence that will touch readers everywhere.A great deal of Holocaust survival stories revolve around disguise--many Jews were forced into impersonation by the desperateness of their plight. Imagine if a person, by the accident of birth, was deigned a target of Nazi hatred but hadn't an option of disguise.
The son of a well-to-do African and a white German nurse, Hans lived a privileged toddler's life befitting the grandson of a diplomat. Concern for Hans's frail health caused his mother to remain with him in Germany when his grandfather and father were compelled to return to Liberia. He and his mother become part of Hamburg's poor working class, forced to live in a cramped attic apartment without hot water and electricity. But their change in social status was to be only the beginning of their hardships.
For twelve agonizing years following Hitler's rise to power, Hans, like all non-Aryans, was dehumanized and devalued by the Nazis. Living in constant fear of death, by either the Gestapo executioners or Allied bombs, Hans's existence became increasingly precarious until liberation by British troops in 1945.
What sets Hans's story apart from other memoirs of the Holocaust era is that his high visibility made him an easily recognizable target, stranded without the comfort of a racial community of any sort. Destined to Witness is a memoir filled with courage, feeling, and intelligence that will touch readers everywhere.
- Sales Rank: #10552568 in Books
- Published on: 2001-07-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.43" h x 1.14" w x 5.35" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 347 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In a unique addition to the literature of life under the Third Reich, Massaquoi, a former managing editor of Ebony magazine, chronicles his life as the son of a German nurse and Al-Haj Massaquoi, the son of the Liberian consul general to Germany. Soon after his birth in Hamburg in 1926, the author's father returned to Liberia to bolster his family's failing stature in national politics, leaving his wife and son to grapple with everyday life amid the rise of fascism in Germany. The Reich's racial politics were so steadfastly drummed into German schoolchildren that the young Hans quickly acquired an anti-Semitic outlook only to realize that he was also subject to discrimination as a non-Aryan. He sought intellectual escape from German nationalism through reading books by Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and James Fenimore Cooper; in his idealization of African-American athletes Joe Lewis and Jesse Owens; and by learning how to play jazz and his involvement with the "swingboys" officially condemned as purveyors of "degenerate" music and dance. Massaquoi and his mother survived both Nazi rule and the devastating 1943 British bombing of Hamburg. He tells of life after the war, of befriending black American soldiers, of moving to Liberia in 1948 and of his subsequent move to America in 1950, where he came to feel that racism was as prevalent as it had been under the Third Reich. Thoughtful and well written, Massaquoi's memoir adds nuance to our comprehension of 20th-century political and personal experience.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Massaquoi, the retired managing editor of Ebony, presents an unusual perspective on the Nazi era. The son of an "Aryan" mother and an African diplomat, he grew up in Germany on the wrong side of Nazi racial ideology, confronting not only the bigotry of his countrymen but the danger of Allied bombs on a nearly daily basis. Even after his postwar immigration to the United States and service with the U.S. Army in Korea, the author sees his life as one of witness to racial inequality. His journey from Nazi Germany to the post-Civil Rights United States makes for interesting reading, recounted with an eye for detail and a humanity that is appealing. Although there were many individuals like Massaquoi, few took the path he did, and probably few could write about it with such force. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AFrederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Massaquoi, a man of mixed racial heritage, survived 12 years of Nazi terror in Germany during World War II. The son of a German mother and a Liberian father, he grew up in a country that became progressively obsessed with racial purity, where Massaquoi was unable to escape racist taunts and hostilities. He recalls his early, naive acceptance and even admiration of Hitler, even in the face of creeping racial animosities, primarly aimed at Jews but slowly encompassing other non-Aryan people as well. By adolescence, embittered by his perpetual outsider status, Massaquoi had come to grips with the reality of his situation and that of his mother. Through sports figures Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, Massaquoi attached his racial identity to that of black Americans and became obsessed with coming to the U.S. After the war, he settled temporarily in Liberia with his father's family before journeying to the U.S. and eventually becoming a reporter with Ebony magazine. Massaquoi's background and experiences provide incredible context to this personal story of overcoming racism. Vanessa Bush
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
He was also denied people who looked like him. This was his new life
By Duchess
Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany was, indeed, an interesting book. Interesting is the operative word here. Yes, one can say the title was rather misleading. In fact 50 pages in, I thought the very same thing. Nazi Germany was filled with gore and blood, and horrific acts beyond imagination-but, there was none of that. However, after reading the entire book and reflecting on it, I can say that this book was titled correctly. The 20 plus years hans Mssaquoi spent literally growing up in Germany, informed all that he became.
Here was a little boy who, at an early age, was forced to digest the poisonous matter of a hatful new nationalism in Germany. His father and grandfather were thrown out of Germany, and Hans out of a young childhood where he was surrounded by luxury. He was also denied people who looked like him. This was his new life. His mother did not really talk about it, probably because of the guilt she felt in retrospect. For years, he was rather in a state of constipation--the inability to purge his body of a constant stream of poison. Because he was so young, he just didn't have the words, and when he did, there was no one like him to tell them. And so he focuses on people and incidents. For most of his growing up, there is a sense of duality. He knows he is different but tries hard to fit in. He is a 2 eyd person in a society awards people with 3 eyes. I
In Germany after the war, he realizes that his difference can be used to some advantage; however, he also knows that he needs to truly define himself among the 2 eyed people. This he accomplishes, at least in part, by going to Liberia. Thus, a young man who never felt at home in Germany or Liberia decides to remake himself in America. Mature enough to better process all which has happened, he feels a new sense of freedom-something he never before felt.
I found this book a difficult read, but then how much more difficult was it for Hans Massaquoi to write?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Unique perspective
By C. R. Greyraven
This memoir grabbed my attention in a way that usually only a novel would. The author tells a very personal story of himself as a child in a difficult family situation that interweaves with and parallels an entire society's upheaval. A black Liberian father (son of an ambassador) and a white German mother (working class) start the story in post WWI Germany. The author weaves evocative detail into this tale of a dark-skinned child growing up in Hamburg with a single mother who battles to protect her son from discrimination as Hitler rises to power. The author speaks with both human or pathos as he describes his teenage years in a nation going to war for Aryan supremacy. He brings to life the horror of the bombing of Hamburg and the brutal struggle for food and shelter that he shared with many Germans in post-war Germany. His adventures and misadventures with American servicemen in Germany and then with his Liberian family in Africa bring another layer into sociological insights offered to the reader. The story wraps up in the USA, pulling the threads of historical trends into more recent decades. A well-told tale from a unique perspective. Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
An amazing life story
By Wanda Phillips
A very lucky man takes us out onto the knife's edge of his life. His smart, well-grounded mother provides the security needed for a mixed race child to survive Nazi Germany. Those of us for whom the second world war is history can benefit from this man's journey through the rise of Nazi Germany, the war years, and the contrast of life in Liberia, then America. Luck and his sensible mother give him an insider/outsider view; here is a man who could have been crushed into self-loathing or killed by racists at several points in his life, but he keeps his head, he makes a wonderful life for himself, and he proves all the weird bigotry wrong, again and again.
A well-written memoir. The author applies his journalist's training on his life to provide an insightful examination of the Nazi regime. He presents his life and it becomes clear that regardless of the hate propagated in the culture, he comes out a rather strong, flexible, and cheerful man. He looks at the inverted racism and corruption of Liberia without the embarrassment or shame that some would project. He remains convinced that America is the true land of the free, except in the southern states. Even when that idyllic vision is wiped away by the casual bigotry of some of the Americans he meets, he loves America for its high aims. He celebrates the potential that America represents for him.
In truth, it is his large family that gives him the glow that shines through his entire story. In the darkest days he and his mother find a way to live with dignity.
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