[allAfrica.com]  [celtel.com]


Remembering Africans in Nazi Camps

The Independent (Banjul)
ANALYSIS
July 16, 2004
Posted to the web July 16, 2004

By Ibrahim Seaga Shaw
Paris
May 8 1945, the day the Allied Forces declared victory over Nazi Germany of
Adolf Hitler at the end of the Second World War, is a date observed in a very
big way in France and other parts of Europe bythe laying of wreaths in memory
of all those Jews and soldiers who lost their lives in the hands of the Nazis.
But wait a minute, the victims of the Nazi Camps were not all Jews; they
included hundreds of blacks of African descent, most of whom were brought in to
fight on the side of the Allied Forces.
Unfortunately however, during the 8 May celebrations each year, not a single
word or wreath is laid in memory of those blacks who died along side the Jews,
nor a single word uttered on behalf of the few black survivors of this Nazi
genocide, as if their lives were different from those of the Jews.
It was against this background and the desire to rewrite African history vis-à-
vis Europethat Diaspora Afrique 2000, a Pan-African Association in France,
decided to break the long silence by organising avideo projection of a
documentary "Des Noirs dans les Camps Nazis" (Blacks in the Nazi Camps) madeby
an Ivorian journalist Serge Bilé. The projection on Friday May 7 at the 'Images
D'Ailleurs', the firstblack cinema hall in Paris, was apparently dedicated to
the memory of the black victims and survivors of the Nazi camps, and as part of
the Allied Forces victory day commemoration.
In order to wet my enthusiasm to learn more about the usual pooh-poohing of
anything African in the West, I chose to follow my inner instinct and honour
the invitation of my countryman Brima Conteh, president of Diaspora Afrique
2000. The hall itself was jam-packed with mostly blacks from different
backgrounds, and you can literally count the few whites who were around. Conteh
spoke briefly about the aims and objectives of his association before the
projection.
The documentary, which lasted an hour, turned out to be quite emotional mainly
featuring three blacksurvivors of the Nazi labour & concentration camps
telling their bitter stories. It was also punctuated with occasional slides of
the Nazi camps in black and white.
The idea is to bring to light, for the first time, the suffering of these
blacks originally from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, and even
Equatorial Guinea sent to fight along side the Allied Forces with identity
cards bearing not their original nationalities but rather those of their
colonial masters such as France, Belgium, Spain, Great Britain, and sometimes
Germany. While the jewish victims have often been remembered with their
survivors even benefiting from reparations from Germany, their black colleagues
from Africa or the Caribbean islands have been all but ignored and forgotten,
not to talk of reparations to their survivors.
One of the survivors, John William, an Ivorian remembered for interpreting the
famous song by Lara and many negro religious songs recalled how, as a young man
in 1943, he was employed as a qualified mechanic and later placed in one of the
Nazi labour camps where he suffered unspeakable repression. He said he
continued to pray hoping to survive the horrible experience; and in this way he
quickly became a devout Christian. Another, Dominique Mendy, who was filmed in
his native Senegal, also had a similar story of suffering and frustration to
tell, comparing their experience more or less to that suffered by other African
brothers and sisters during the era of the slave trade.
The other, Théodore Michael, is black but still considers himself to be a
German since his family migrated to Berlin from Tanganyika, a former German
colony. He recalled how, following the promulgation of the laws of Nuremberg-
the decrees that were drawn up by one Glotke, who was, after the war,
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's Secretary of State-jews, tsiganes and "negroes"
were the victims lined up for the Nazi concentration camps and gas chambers.
Théodore Michael said because the Germans were eager to protect their "blood
and honour", they frowned at children born from unions of German women and
African soldiers dismissing them as "basterds of the Rheine", which they took
to be more of a humiliation for the German Reich.
According to Théodore's account, the SS soldiers, who were not used to seeing
blacks, touched the black skin of the prisoners to know whether it was "dirty";
and that the SS officers were always happy to use the black prisoners as
servants before exterminating them.
But according to the account of one Belgian white survivor, who was also
screened recounting his experience, the difference of the colour of the skin
disappeared in the camps, and that the solidarity among children suffering the
same repression and humiliation proved to be stronger.
"After the war, I visited Gorée Island and its slave house, and I compared
myself to those chained slaves...we also had our hands tied, we were also
slaves", said Marie-José Chombart de Lau we, another white Belgian survivor.
THE DEBATE
The hall down stairs which hosted the debate at about 9 pm was equally full to
capacity, as many hadto stand if only to catch a glimpse of those on the panel
which included two of the survivors featured in the film, John William and
Théodore Michael, as well as the film maker himself, Serge Bilé. You did not
need to be an expert in reading people's minds to see that most of those who
rushed down immediately after the projection, jockeying for seats, or where to
stand, were even more eager to see and hear these survivors speak live than to
follow the debate. I must admit that I was not an exception. Considering all
what these guys went through watching the film, it was just normal to see our
anxiety bubbling having them face us in an open debate.
John William appeared much greyer than he was in the film, although he sounded
physically fit. Now in his late 70s living in the suburbs of Paris with his
family including the daughter who accompanied him, William said there was a big
difference between the Nazi labour camps and the Nazi concentration camps, but
that this difference was overshadowed by the fact that they were all subjected
to more or less the same level of humiliation and repression.
"For me the whole trauma turned out to be a kind of curiosity because I
remember going through a very difficult moment; I'm still living with it. I
still remember with a heavy heart at the Labour camp in Nuremberg where as a
very qualified worker, I was paid 15 cigarettes a week. Can you imagine that?

   

  =============================================================================
     Copyright © 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by
                    AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================