The Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany

The Nazi Persecution of Black People in Germany

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were several thousand Black people living in Germany. The Nazi regime harassed and persecuted them because the Nazis viewed Black people as racially inferior. While there was no centralized, systematic program targeting Black people for murder, many Black people were imprisoned, forcibly sterilized, and murdered by the Nazis.

When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were several thousand Black people living in Germany. The Nazi regime discriminated against them because the Nazis viewed Black people as racially inferior. During the Nazi era (1933–1945), the Nazis used racial laws and policies to restrict the economic and social opportunities of Black people in Germany. They also harassed, imprisoned, sterilized, and murdered an unknown number of Black people. 

Before World War I, several thousand Black people came to Germany from Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean. Almost all of these sojourners were men. A significant number of them came from Germany’s African colonies, especially from Cameroon. During the colonial period, the Germans imposed strict migration restrictions for their colonial subjects. The German authorities wanted to limit the number of Black permanent residents in Germany and curtail the growth of any significant Black population there.

Despite these restrictions, Black men from the colonies and beyond often came to Germany to learn trades or engage in other work. They sought educational opportunities as apprentices and students. They also came to work as servants and sailors. A significant number came to Germany as paid performers in exploitative public exhibitions called human zoos.

The majority of Black visitors intended on staying in Germany for only a short time. Most Black men and women who traveled to Germany returned home before World War I (1914–1918). A smaller number chose to remain. Additionally, some Black people who had not planned on staying in Germany were trapped there by the war. The outbreak of hostilities in 1914 limited international travel and migration within and beyond Europe. 

Even after World War I ended in 1918, most of Germany’s former colonial subjects could not easily return to their places of birth or move abroad. This was because Germany lost its colonies in the postwar peace settlements. In the new postwar order, Germany’s former colonial subjects had neither German citizenship nor access to passports or travel documents. They were stranded in Germany (then known as the Weimar Republic), which no longer had any formal connection to its former colonies. 

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