Hitler's African Victims

The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers in 1940
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-521-85799-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 216 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 414 g

During its campaign against France in 1940, the German army massacred several thousand black POWs belonging to units drafted in France's West African colonies. This book for the first time documents these war crimes on the basis of extensive research in French and German archives. A massive Nazi propaganda offensive approved by Hitler, reviving traditional images of black soldiers as mutilating savages, formed the background for the massacres. The book shows, however, that the treatment of black French POWs was highly inconsistent and that abuses were often triggered by certain combat situations. It connects the massacres of black French soldiers to the debates on the Nazification of the German army during World War II and places them in the context of the treatment of non-white 'illegitimate combatants' in colonial wars.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Scheck, Raffael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. The fate of black French soldiers in 1940; 2. The origin and evolution of the prejudice; 3. Ideological and situational factors; 4. Implications.

Über Autor(innen)

Scheck, Raffael
Raffael Scheck is Associate Professor for Modern European History at Colby College, where he has been teaching since 1994. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1993. He is the author of two other books, Alfred von Tirpitz and German Right-Wing Politics, 1914-1930 (1998) and Mothers of the Nation: Right-Wing Women in Weimar Germany (2004). Professor Scheck has published over a dozen articles on German right-wing politics, Swiss funding for Hitler, and the history of childhood.