Early Life
Joe Gaetjens was born in Haiti to a Haitian mother and a German father. His great-grandfather Thomas, a native of Bremen, had been sent to Haiti by Frederick William III, the King of Prussia, as a business emissary. The family was quite prosperous, and although by the time of Joe's birth their wealth had decreased significantly, they were still among the Haitian elite. When Gaetjens was born, his father even registered the birth certificate with the German embassy, in case Joe ever wanted to gain German citizenship.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)