The Struggle of Identity: A Short Biography of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi

Nothing is as hard as struggling to find one's place in the world around them. The story of Hans Jürgen Massaquoi shows us another side of Nazi Germany, one unknown to many who study the  history of World War II. Perhaps this is due to the minority of people of African descent in Germany or the United States own issues with race in general.         

Kulture Kampf

        When Germany lost her African colonies, thousands of colonists returned home including those who married native Africans. Under the tight restraints of the Treaty of Versailles, France had stationed colonial troops in the western Germany, including troops from Algeria. Many German women founded relationships with the Algerian troops, having children in and out of wedlock. It was those who were born out of wedlock that were derogatorily called “Rhineland Bastards.” Germany was a tumultuous nation under the weak Weimar Republic. Jobs were hard to find and even harder for Blacks and biracial Germans. It was not hard for Germans to attach themselves to promise of a rejuvenated Germany from political extremists. The National Socialists with their large rallies and marches were enticing to a nation pining for its previous militaristic glory. This was how the Nazis were able to gain the popular support of a desperate nation.

                    The parades and rallies did not only entice white Germans, one young Blackman was as well. Hans Jürgen Massaquoi  was born on  January19,1926 in Hamburg, Germany the child of Al-Haj Massaquoi, a Liberian businessman and diplomat, and Bertha Baetz, a German nurse. Massaquoi’s father and mother had lived in luxury prior and after Hans was born. When a political crisis forced his father returned to Liberia, Massaquoi’s mother refused to leave because of Hans health. The decision forced Massaquoi’s mother to return to nursing and for them to move from the palatial villa and into a rough, working-class section of the Hamburg, where street brawls between Communists and National Socialists were a common occurrence.

Massaquoi wearing his Nazi sweater patch

Massaquoi was enamored by the Nazis and to the chagrin of his mother, had a swastika sewn onto his sweater. Massaquoi proclaimed that the National Socialists “put on the best show of all the political parties. There were parades, fireworks and uniforms.” In his autobiography, Destined to Witness, Massaquoi recalled the first time that Hitler's motorcade came to Hamburg, and the excitement he felt as the “Führer” pass. Despite all the excitement, Massaquoi discovered the true nature of the Party.

As a young boy, he dealt with the constant teasing of his class mates who would chant “Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger!” which meant “Negro, Negro chimney sweep!” in spite of the ridicule, Massaquoi did make many friends, but believed he was the only Black in Hamburg even though there were children of the Algerian soldiers. In his father’s house, all of the servants were white and so he thought that Blacks were of a higher social class. Later he discovered that because of his second class racial status, he could not enjoy the privileges his “Nordic” classmates had. Massaquoi could not play at the public playground or join the Hitlerjugend. He was not the direct victim of the regime like many adult Blacks who were forcibly sterilized or put into camps. However in one instance, he was confronted by a staunch Nazi teacher who stated “Don't feel so smug because after we have finished with the Jews, people like you will be next.” While Massaquoi could not attend high school or university, he was able to apprentice under a machinist for three years.

Post-War

After the war, Massaquoi worked as a translator for the occupying British Army and played saxophone in jazz clubs for extra money. He met several African American soldiers who were intrigued by his stories. In 1948, Massaquoi left Germany for Liberia where he experienced the horrifying discrimination of the indigenous Africans by the descendants of American slaves. Two years later, he applied for an US student visa and attended an aviation mechanics school in Chicago. Not that longer after, the Korean War started and Massaquoi received a draft notice. He eagerly enlisted to serve in the prestigious 82^nd Airborne Division because he knew it would accelerate his chance of becoming an American citizen. While he did not see combat overseas, Massaquoi was stationed in the South during the tumultuous pre-civil rights movement. He recalled that, “Even at its worst, the American version of racism seemed much more endurable than the Nazism I had already experienced”

After the Army, Massaquoi enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana to study journalism under the G.I. Bill. He graduated in 1956 and continued his studies at Northwestern University. In 1958, Jet magazine hired Massaquoi as an associate editor. Within a year, he was transferred to Ebony, where he rose to the position of managing editor and was a significant contributor until retiring from Ebony in 1997. As managing editor, Massaquoi met many prominent Blacks, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Elijah Muhammad.

In 1999, Massaquoi published his autobiographical Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany the book was received with great acclaim especially in Massaquoi homeland of Germany. There is an upcoming German two part movie based on the book and Massaquoi amazing experience. Today, Massaquoi is retired and living in New Orleans but is still occasionally contributing to Ebony and speaking about his experience as a Black youth in Nazi Germany.