Brussels. Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, MEP and the President of the European Parliament, Mrs. Roberta Metsola. 26.1.2023. © Daina Le Lardic, European Parliament.

In the presence of Israel's President Issac Herzog, the European Parliament in Brussels commemorated the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps and celebrated the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. January 27, 1945 marks the liberation, the beginning of the end of immeasurable suffering. On that day, the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated, the place where more than one million people had been killed between 1940 and 1945 alone.

Die Vereinten Nationen erklärten den 27. Januar zum „Internationalen Tag des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Holocaust“. Einige Jahre zuvor hatte der Europarat den 27. Januar bereits zum „Europäischen Tag des Gedenkens an den Holocaust und der Verhütung von Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit“ erklärt. Zu diesen Opfern gehört die Gruppe der Menschen afrikanischer Herkunft, Afrikaner*innen und Afrodeutschen über deren Leidensweg bisher noch wenig bekannt ist.

People of African origin, Afro-Germans, who lived in Germany at the time of National Socialism, were victims of Nazi barbarism. They were discriminated against, mostly lost their jobs, and their German citizenship was revoked. Worse still they were increasingly threatened with sterilization, imprisonment and murder. As part of the Nazi euthanasia program, they were used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. Direct confrontation with the memory of the Holocaust recalls the extent of the Nazi regime's atrocities.

When I started visiting the concentration camps and their respective archives about 20 years ago, I was stunned by what I saw and read. Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Neuengamme, Sachsenhausen, Bergen-Belsen. The horror of these places got under my skin and has stayed with me ever since. It has made me react against any expression of contempt, denial and racism towards other people. For this is the breeding ground of exclusion, hatred and ultimately fantasies of annihilation. We all know that.

In the general historiography and culture of remembrance of the Holocaust, the murder of people of African descent has not been taken into account. They are not mentioned in the commemorative speeches, nor is there a monument commemorating them as a specific victim group. What does this say about our society and its treatment of people of African descent? What about our collective consciousness?

Es geht hier nicht darum, Vergleiche zwischen den verschiedenen Opfergruppen anzustellen. Die Leiden der Nazi-Opfer sind unermesslicher menschlicher Schmerz. Sie können nicht in einem „Wettbewerb der Opfer“ verwandelt werden und schon gar nicht dazu dienen, das „Medienfeld“ zu besetzen (Le Monde 20.3.2005); denn es gibt keine Stufen des Leidens, sondern nur einen einzigen menschlichen Schmerz. Es wird geschätzt, dass etwa 2000 bis 3000 Schwarze oder Menschen afrikanischer Herkunft aufgrund der sogenannten Nürnberger Rassengesetze (1935) ihr Leben verloren haben!

However, racism against Black people is still unknown and normalized at the same time in many places. Children and youth of African descent deserve a future free from racist attacks. As a former high school teacher, I know how important it is to think about the connection of history education and its relationship to racism today. This needs to be expanded, as does research in the field around the fates of people of African descent and Afro-Germans.

At the beginning of my research into their fates during National Socialism, I found only individual pieces of the puzzle. These gradually came together to form a frightening mosaic. Of the survivors whose existence was suppressed in a vacuum of memory, I would like to introduce the late Gert Schramm (1928-2016). He was born in Erfurt and interned in Buchenwald concentration camp at the age of 15. After the end of the war, he lived in both the FRG and the GDR and was active both as an activist in anti-racist educational work and as the author of an autobiography: "Wer hat Angst vorm Schwarzen Mann: Mein Leben in Deutschland" (published by Aufbauverlag).

Meine Begegnung mit ihm hat vor vielen Jahren in mir den Wunsch erweckt, den „von der Geschichte Vergessenen“ einen Namen zu geben und eine Kultur des Erinnerns, einer Pflicht des Erinnerns, zu etablieren. So gründete ich 2015 in Erlangen im Rahmen der von den Vereinten Nationen ausgerufenen Dekade für Menschen afrikanischer Abstammung (2015-2024) die „Black History Weeks“[1]. An deren ersten Auftaktveranstaltung nahmen drei Zeitzeugen teil, die als deutsche Afrodeutsche Opfer des Nazi-Regimes geworden waren. Diese Überlebenden sind: Gert Schramm, Marie Nejar[2] und Theodor Wonja Michael[3] (Theodor Michaels Buch wurde ins Französische übersetzt. „Deutsch und schwarz dazu“).

In a letter to the then German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel in March 2015, I asked her to pay tribute to the group of prisoners of African origin and the non-European inmates of the concentration camps. In her speech on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Dachau camp on May 4, 2015, Mrs. Merkel considered my request and said verbatim:

„Es handelte sich um Männer, Frauen und Kinder. Sie kamen aus ganz Europa. Darüber hinaus kamen sie aus vielen anderen Teilen der Welt, aus Asien, aber auch – was in der Öffentlichkeit noch kaum bekannt ist – aus Teilen Afrikas, aus dem Kongo, dem Senegal und aus Eritrea. Wir gedenken der rund 41 500 Menschen, die diese Hölle nicht überlebt haben“.

I still thank the former Chancellor today, for bearing witness at that time.

The more we report on Nazi atrocities, the more fully we understand what Nazi ideology did, the better we can continue to prepare together for a peaceful future. And this is more than necessary given the growth of far-right parties in many parts of Europe and the world. In remembering the victims of the Holocaust, we must leave no one behind, overlook no fate without shedding tears.

On January 27 of each year, it is time to become aware of the extent of the attacks on the Jewish people, of the scars left on the Jewish people. Memorial Day gives us time and space to fulfill our duty to remember. We are saddened, stunned and convinced. Convinced to renew our vigilance against right-wing inhuman tendencies. Stunned and convinced in the face of an almost unimaginable form of cruelty that cost the lives of millions of people: Jews, Sinti and Roma, people living with disabilities, LGBTQI*, communists and social democrats, Jesuits and priests, Jehovah's Witnesses, so-called asocials, conscientious objectors, resistance fighters and also Black people or people of African origin, Afro-Germans and many other minorities.

May we live together in the spirit of tolerance and always treat people of all religions and skin colors with respect, regardless of their worldview!

Sources:

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. " Dominique Amigou Mendy (1909-2003), rescapé du camp de concentration de Neuengamme." www.grioo.com/info5094.html 23.7.2005 

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. " Standing ovation pour Gert Schramm, l'unique survivant du camp de concentration de Buchenwald." www.grioo.com/ar,standing_ovation_pour_gert_schramm_l_unique_survivant_noir_du_camp_de_concentration_de_buchenwald_,22398.html 15.4.2012

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. "El Hadj Ousmane Alioune Gadio, Doyen des Anciens combattants, déporté en Allemagne (1920-2008)" www.grioo.com/ar,el_hadj_ousmane_alioune_gadio_doyen_des_anciens_combattants_deporte_en_allemagne_1920-2008_,15694.html 19.11.2008

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. " Une rose pour les Africains et leurs descendants, les victimes oubliées du camp de concentration de Buchenwald. " africpost.com/une-rose-pour-les-africains-et-leurs-decendants-oublies-du-camp-de-concentration-de-buchenwald.12.5.2015 ;

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. " Les victimes oubliées du camp de concentration de Buchenwald. " diasporaenligne.net/allemagne-les-victimes-oubliees-du-camp-de-concentration-de-buchenwald-par-dr-pierrette-herzberger-fofana/ May 2015 ; www.camer.be/42172/1:6/contact.html 16 May 2015.

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. "The Only Black Survivor of the Concentration Camp of Buchenwald is dead: In Memoriam of Gert Schramm (1928-2016) " www.africanheritagemagazine.de/the-only-black-survivor-of-the-concentration-camp-of-buchenwald-is-dead-in-memoriam-of-gert-schramm-1928-2016/ 10 Juin 2016

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana. " Buchenwald concentration camp: Gert Schramm - an Afro-German survived " http://www.m-media.or.at/welt/europa/kz-buchenwald-gert-schramm-ein-afro-deutscher-uberlebte/2012/05/08/index.html 08 May 2012

Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana: Video message on the persecuted of African origin https://www.youtube.com/@MEP.DR.HERZBERGER-FOFANA

[1] https://herzberger-fofana.eu/en/ueber-mich/publikationen/

[2] https://www.buecher.de/shop/buecher/mach-nicht-so-traurige-augen-weil-du-ein-negerlein-bist/nejar-marie/products_products/detail/prod_id/20944488/

[3] https://www.stern.de/gesellschaft/in-koeln-hat-die-erste-schwarze-bibliothek-deutschlands-eroeffnet-31720670.html