Germany's Black Holocaust, 1890-1945

Rating:
Summary: CAPTIVATING! Couldn't put it down!
Review: I just completed the book, "Germany's Black Holocaust". Captivating! I'd put it in the category of classic because the information does a service to the community. I read it in record time for me and couldn't put it down! I love the parallels and connections drawn between the US and Germany...the propagandist cartoons shown from the era are all so enlightening. Also, I was not aware of the stellar record of the Tuskegee Airmen...there's so much to learn from this phenomenal work! I'm sure the author has experienced just seeing the looks on people's faces when they look at the picture on the cover...smiles turn to frowns and questions automatically are voiced. The political statement made just with the title stirs the soul. The author's careful selection of words is especially noteworthy...coverage of revolts was SO refreshing! Hogan's Heroes???!???!!!! I grew up watching reruns...without a clue to the subliminal messages being sent. The "Bedfellows" chapters are an arresting/shocking climax to the whole book. The author is a GREAT writer! I was always eager to get to the next chapter because of the teaser he had at the end of the previous chapter. This work is great on so many levels with all the right amounts of all the right ingredients. I highly recommend this for home schoolers or high school history classes. I thank him so much for dedicating his research to this. As a Black bookstore owner, it is so refreshing to review/read a new book of such quality PARTICULARLY these days when there's an overdose of Blaxploitation books on frivolous fantasy, frolic or filth being pushed specifically in the Black community! Our African Perspective Book Club members really enjoyed "Germany's Black Holocaust" as well. There was a very stimulating discussion that resulted. The resources cited were also so extensive which allows the reader easy access to another world of information. I thank him again and again.

Nzingha
Afri-Ware .....

Rating:
Summary: A Long Overdue Revelation
Review: With the release of more and more information concerning the African American contribution to past military actions involving the United States, one issue that has been overlooked by many is the issue of the Black involvement in the Holocaust. Not only from a point of view of the liberation of the Nazi death camps by Black U. S. soldiers, but the deaths of Black German citizens in some of those same camps.

A new work released earlier in 2003 might turn out to be a major point of discussion among historians in the New Year and beyond. "Germany's Black Holocaust 1890-1945: The Untold Truth!" by Firpo W. Carr, PhD is going to keep you turning the pages with interest, curiosity, and wonder (2003, STIR Inc. Publishing, 254 pages).

It has long been an established fact that there were other peoples and nationalities and political prisoners who were held in camps such as Dachau. However, there have been two things missing from some of the discussions: 1) How many of these individuals were of African/German-African backgrounds, and; 2) How did the Nazis treat Black U.S. Military personnel as Prisoners Of War.

Carr set out to fulfill a quest, which, in turn, filled a rather large hole in the historical issues involved in the Holocaust: What of the impact and suffering extracted by the Nazi war machine on other peoples--especially peoples of color--who were rounded up and imprisoned by German authorities during World War II? Carr, based upon his research, noted that some 8,000 Blacks were liberated from the death camps--some of the liberating forces were Black US soldiers.

Carr scanned the historical records available to him in various Holocaust museums, visited Germany and other parts of the world, and talked with those who are still alive, including Black soldiers who helped to liberate some of the death camps, who had previously NOT been interviewed, on the record, by US or other World War II participants. What may be of particular interest are Carr's inclusion of some of the WW II Nazi propaganda photos, along with history of the famed 761 Tank Battalion and their involvement in the Battle of the Bulge.

"Germany's Black Holocaust 1890-1945" gives one another portrait of our involvement in World War II and the Holocaust. This work makes it clear that others suffered during those war years, and their stories are finally starting to come to light.