![]() ![]() During World War II, his "impurity" spared him from being drafted into the German army. ![]() He was "just" a second-class citizen, which was actually a blessing in disguise. However, in contrast to German Jews or German Roma, Massaquoi-as a German Negro-was not persecuted. His skin color made him a target for racist abuse. Increasingly, however, he realized the true nature of Nazism. He was one of the few mixed race children in Nazi Germany, and like most of the other children his age, he dreamed of joining the Hitler Youth. The daily life of the young Massaquoi was remarkable. Eventually, the consul general was recalled to Liberia, and Hans Massaquoi and his mother remained in Germany. His father, Al-Haj Massaquoi, was a law student in Dublin who only occasionally lived with the family at the consul general home in Hamburg. ![]() Massaquoi lived a simple, but happy childhood with his mother, Bertha Nikodijevic. This dichotomy remained a key theme throughout his whole life. His biography provides a unique point of view: he was one of very few German-born mulattoes in all of Nazi Germany, shunned, but not persecuted by the Nazis. In his autobiography, Destined to Witness, Massaquoi describes his childhood and youth in Hamburg during the Nazi rise to power. This very powerful story was brought to the German Television in a two part docu-drama in 2006. Massaquoi, former Managing editor of Ebony Magazine, tells of growing up Black in Nazi Germany in his book, 'Desitined To Witness'. ![]()
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