Blacks and The Armed Forces
Black soldiers served in many non-European countries for the Nationalist cause. German commanders in higher ranks did not implement or order any special treatment for black soldiers, but removed Algerian blacks and individual French citizens during the 1940 campaign in France.
On the other hand, a number of blacks served in the Wehrmacht. The number of German blacks was low, but there were some instances of their being enlisted within Nazi organizations like the Hitlerjugend and later the Wehrmacht. In addition, there was an influx of volunteers during the African campaign, which led to the existence of a number of blacks in the Wehrmacht and SS in such units as the Free Arabian Legion.
Read more about this topic: Black People In Nazi Germany
Famous quotes containing the words blacks, armed and/or forces:
“The Afrocentric exploration of the black past only scratches the surface. A full examination of the ancestry of those who are referred to in the newspapers as blacks and African Americans must include Europe and Native America.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“it pleaseth me when I see through the meadows
The tents and pavilions set up, and great joy have I
When I see o’er the campana knights armed and horses arrayed.
And it pleaseth me when the scouts set in flight the folk with
their goods;
And it pleaseth me when I see coming together after them an host of
armed men.”
—Bertrans De Born (fl. 12th century)
“There exists, at the bottom of all abasement and misfortune, a last extreme which rebels and joins battle with the forces of law and respectability in a desperate struggle, waged partly by cunning and partly by violence, at once sick and ferocious, in which it attacks the prevailing social order with the pin-pricks of vice and the hammer-blows of crime.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)