Children born to black soldiers and German women during the period after World War I came to be known as the "Rhineland Bastards." They were considered a threat to the purity of the German "race."
According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: "By 1937, the Gestapo (German secret state police) had secretly rounded up and forcibly sterilized many of them. Some were subjected to medical experiments; others mysteriously 'disappeared.'"
The autobiography of Hans Massaquoi, Destined to Witness, a mixed-race German who survived Nazi rule of Germany provides an unique insight. He was shunned but never persecuted by the Nazi regime.
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Mixed Experience History Month is an annual blog post series celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established on Heidi Durrow's blog Light-skinned-ed Girl in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to illuminate achievements of multiracial and multicultural individuals (not tragic mulattoes) and people and events central to the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog, or Mixed Chicks Chat blog! Thanks for reading. You can also read past year's series: 2007, 2008, 2009.
