Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi was the former Managing Editor of EBONY magazine and was inspired by 'Roots' author Alex Haley to write the story of his own unusual childhood.
Massaquoi decided to share his experience of being "both an insider in Nazi Germany and, paradoxically, an endangered outsider." His autobiography, "Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany," was published in the U.S. in 1999, followed by a German translation. He shares his familiarity of growing up black in Nazi Germany as being one of very few German-born biracial children in all of Nazi Germany; who were shunned but not persecuted by the Nazis. This very powerful story was created for the German Television in a two part docudrama in 2006.

The daily life of young Massaquoi was remarkable; one of very few mixed race children in Nazi Germany. Like most of the other children his age, Massaquoi dreamed of joining the Hitler Youth. Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party, made up of Hitlerjugendproper, young boys between the ages of 14 to 18, or of Deutsches Jungvolf for boys between ages as young as 10 to 14 years old.
However, he soon realized the true nature of Nazism and that his skin color made him a target for racial abuse. In contrast to German-Jews or German-Roma, Massaquoi—a German-Negro—was not persecuted. "Unlike Jews, blacks were so few in numbers that they were relegated to low-priority status in the Nazis' lineup for extermination," he said in a 2001 interview with London's The Independent newspaper. He was just a second-class citizen, which became a blessing in disguise during World War II for his impurity spared him from being drafted into the German Army. However as unemployment, hunger and poverty grew rampant, Massaquoi tried to enlist, but was rejected.
After the collapse of Germany at the end of the war, he played the saxophone in clubs that catered to the American Merchant Marine and worked as a translator for the British occupying forces.Eventually he left Germany, first joining his father's family in Liberia, before moving to Chicago on a student visa to attend an aviation mechanics school. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951 and served stateside during the Korean War. Afterward, he became a U.S. citizen, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and began a career as a journalist.
Special thanks to the sources for their information, please see the following links to the original articles: