Customer Reviews

Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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Destined to Witness Hans Massaquoi ISBN 0-688-17155-9 1999

"Destined to Witness" is the story of the son of a black Liberian diplomatic official and a white German woman growing up in Nazi times in Germany. Were this story not so convincingly told, one would have to question that the events of Mr. Massaquois life could have really taken place. But they did take place. Not only did the author survive the Hitler years without being killed by the Nazis, but he survived 200 British and American bombing raids that destroyed half of the Hamburgs homes, including his own, and killed 41,000 civilians.

From this book, one learns not only about Massaquois experience with racism in Germany in the Hitler era but about British and French colonial racism in Africa and racism in the United States in the South and in Chicago after the war. Hans Massaquoi would have us understand that these instances of racism were not unrelated.

This book begins with Hans Massaquois early schoolboy experiences growing up in Hamburg. It recounts the terrible racial taunting of pro-Nazi classmates and teachers. In one of his worst school episodes he tells how one teacher told him that after the Nazis had finished with the Jews they would take care of the likes of him. Massaquoi, growing up in the German culture, wanted to be like the other boys to a certain extent. At one point, he was rejected for admission to the Hitler Youth Corp on the basis of his race. Although initially Hitler was a hero to him, later he came to understand more clearly what Hitler represented.

This book describes a number of interesting historical events that Massaquoi witnessed. For example, one was the day the airship Hindenburg flew over his neighborhood in Hamburg, casting its giant shadow over the street on which he lived and all the people who gathered there to see it. In another place, the author describes the aftermath of Kristallnacht in November 1938, the first, Nazi-ordered, countrywide rampage against the Jews. Sidewalks along Hamburgs main shopping avenue, on both sides, for miles, were covered with broken glass in front of windowless stores where all the merchandise had been looted.

The author attributes his own survival through this period to the fact that there were few blacks in the Germany of that time, and Hitlers executioners initially focused their efforts on the Jews. Fortunately, Hitler was defeated before he could finish his ultimate goal of racial purification. Also, Mr. Massaquoi attributes his survival to the fact that, even in these dark hours, there were many Germans who retained their decency after it had gone totally out of style. To these people, whose refusal to go along with the prevailing racism of the day, he gives recognition.

Massaquoi eventually came to the U.S. after the war, served in the army, attended college on the G. I. bill, marched with Martin Luther King, served as the managing editor of "Ebony" magazine and met American presidents.

This book presents a unique opportunity to look inside Nazi times in Germany, not through the eyes of an historian, but through the eyes of someone who lived in them, and as the title suggests, as a witness to history. I highly recommend this unusual book. It is extremely interesting reading. I believe some of those who travel this road will come away with the feeling that they have been changed by the journey.

What a wonderful book I truly enjoyed reading it. I am German, 44 years, my son is German 25 years with a Afro American father. I raised him in Germany and he is a true black German.We experienced together racism and I saw ourselves a lot in this book.Today we live in the USA and sadly he learned much more about racism here than ever before in his life.I am saddened by the thought that his goal is to go back to Germany because of these reasons - this is just to show you how times have changed. I hope for all of us that my beautiful brown babies my grandchildren that I will have one day never will have to experience anything like Hans or Frederick Douglass.

I live in Hamburg, Germany and have read this book in german. It is poignant, and at times very funny. It's also an inspiring book, for it offers the rather unique glimpse of an intelligent boy who is confronted with rampant racism and learns to survive it.

As someone who prefers to read fiction rather than autobiographies, I was amazed by the speed at which I read this book. As a Liberian who went to kindergarten and primary school in Germany in the seventies, I found I could easily relate to his descriptions of his early school days. However there the similarities end.My life has been a bed of roses compared to the author's. Mr Massaquoi's feat of endurance under constant psychological attack from Nazi Germany is exceptional and deeply moving. His adventures in Liberia and the USA also make good reading. Fact in this case is stranger than fiction! Recommended!

I first read of Mr. Massaquoi's story in Studs Terkel's The Good War. I was always fascinated by that brief account and hoped to learn more about this man's life. I was overjoyed to find Mr. Massaquoi's autobiography while browsing in a book store here in New York City.

It is hardly surprising that Hans Massaquoi experienced terribly humiliating and life threatening experiences at the hands of Nazi era Germans. But it was far more surprising that ardent Nazis sometimes treated him with kindness and respect. I certainly don't want to give the impression that I am in anyway minimizing the great evil of Nazism, but it is clear that some of Mr. Massaquoi's experiences show a complexity of human action and emotion that I would not have expected from Germans of that era. This story shows that humans are as likely to practice kindness and love as they are to show hatred, depending on which aspects of their characters have been encouraged and supported. Hans Massaquoi's life reminds us how essential it is for all of us to speak up against hatred, especially when it is espoused by the state.

I am not an avid reader of biographies, but this particular book was too enticing to pass up. I was not disappointed at all. If you are intrigued about the Nazi era, Hitler's rise to power, or how minorities coped with that, then this is definitely the book for you! From his very first memories of childhood, and right through the end of the war, I almost could not put it down. His real life story was better than any fiction book could have been. He describes: surroundings, family, friends, and unpleasant situations in such excellent detail that you really feel like you are there with him. Moreover, the story flows so smoothly you don't feel like you are missing anything, nor does the book drag along either.

I have to admit that before I read this book I had no idea there were ANY blacks living in Germany at that time, and if I imagined there had been, then I thought surely they wouldn't have survived. Obviously this book blew that misconception of mine right out of the water. I was actually surprised that he was treated as decently as he was by some of his fellow citizens and neighbors. Going by this book it looks like blacks might have been treated worse in the Jim Crow South, than in some areas of Nazi Germany, ironic given the principles each country was fighting for. My only drawback was that this book lost a little of its grab for me after the war was over, so it was slightly anticlimactic at that point. Nevertheless, that in no way diminishes my overall satisfaction with this very inspiring story. Therefore, I cannot give it anything less than the full 5 stars.

Have long awaited some form of account from an african or african american first-hand perspective of life under Nazi rule prior to, during and after the war. This is truly a gold mine because of the honest heartfelt unpretentious account of war and unfortunately how this particular event affected this German born "black" citizen and his white German mother. True grit!

As a Mischling, I want to thank the author for sharing his experiences. Even so born after the war, I share many of his experiences, both in Germany and in the USA. Racism I didn't experience until I came to the US, covertly from White and openly from Blacks. The pictures in the book, substituting a little balck girl, could be mine, the experiences of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn, could be mine. Reading the book made me even more greatful to my wonderful German grandparents for raising me. I do feel embittered about the American Government for ignoring us, specially after the efforts that were exerted for children left behind in Vietnam.

Lately, I have been reading a lot of biographies, and this one had me coming back online just to tell the readers how much I enjoyed it. From the minute I opened the book, I was fascinated with Mr. Massaquoi. I was very impressed with his mother for affirming him as a person and loving him. That took guts and love. I was glad for the various people who loved him in Germany when he felt like an outsider(Notice how that changes when the Allies come and kept mistaking him for an American GI? ).Folks, you can't help but get this book and love it. I thank the author for bringing his story to us. It should be required reading and I highly recommend it.

If this book had been subtitled "Going to Africa to Find the Father Who Abandoned Me", I probably would not have read the book. No, I eagerly picked up a book subtitled "Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany" to see a unique perspective on a topic that continues to fascinate the world. When it sticks to the title subject, it's well done. But unfortunately, this part of the book ends too quickly, and too much time is spent on the Africa part. So be warned that you are a victim of marketing if you are expecting the book to be totally on the title subject.

I will go even further and say that too much time is spent on the time after the war, but before he goes to Africa. Yes, times are hard for everyone, but by this time, the terrible racial laws that destroyed so many lives are pretty much gone, and it's everybody for themselves. While this is somewhat interesting, once again, it's not exactly what we were expecting when we started reading.

Which leaves us to what we DID want to read the book for. The author does do a good job here of describing not only major incidents based on one of the most terrible times in humanity, but details of small things that adversely affected peoples' lives. We are amused at first that the young boy WANTS to be a Nazi Youth, but then, put most of us in the same position, and we would have probably gone for it. But this all crashes when he finds that, by law, he cannot join soley because of what he was born as. It was also heartbreaking when he could not represent his country as a boxer for the same reason.

All in all, it's amazing that he did slip through the net. I would imagine that the lack of his black father and the presence of only his very German mother probably contributed to this, so maybe the father leaving saved his life.... So while lucky may not be the appropriate term, somebody was watching over him.

They ask people if reviews are helpful to them here, yet I notice that less than five-star reviews seem to somehow be less "helpful" than glowing reviews. So while one is tempted to just sugar-coat everything, this forum is supposed to let people know what a product contains. In this case, I'm saying that one third of the book is very good, another third is pretty good, and the final third has nothing to do with the title. I hope this proves helpful.