European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 24, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 20racism and death concentrated in a Black Start a by de Reavis stall writer. A a. I to a not a Shock hut n revelation to learn that the nazis murdered Blacks in concentration Camps along with the others if Fey considered., inferior. A a. Historians can prove that a least 2,000 Black people were murdered in hitlers death Camps More than 50 years aeon . A Michele Mai met actress and author from Martini quo has written a Book a Biack Star a about a. A Black woman also from the West indies Island who died in the nazi concentration Camp at 11a. Quot Ven Briick Germany. A a although the number of Blacks who perished i the Camps is Small compared to others who were murdered Black sent tries to make sure they re not forgotten. A . Before mail jct talked about her unusual Book which she is promoting in Germany she had to get something off her Chest. A . Quot i recently watched the closing of the Berlin brigade ceremony on television Quot she said in an inter View in Kassel a att was wonderful to see so Many Black on camera. There was even a folding the american Flag with Presl Dent Clinton a wonderful you d never see Black people playing such prominent roles in France.�?�. Racism is the Core of mail lets novel which has been published in French and German by the firm Artanda Frauen Yermag and which she Hopes will a. Find an american publisher. A. After five years of research on the subject Maillet composed the poetic and Moying Story of Sidonic a 1 Lei Lenon. A. Hellen on arrives in France to study full of Hope to attend medical school. She Falls in Tove with a Young Frenchman who seduces and leaves her with two children. Abandoned she finds Refuge working in the household of a wealthy jewish family in Bordeaux. A during the German occupation in 1943, Hellen on and her two children Are arrested and deported along with her employers. The novel written in the form of a diary relates How Hellen on develops an identity and strength through the horrors she is forced to suffer. Before her arrest Hellen on is hardly aware of her Black identity. Its the phenomenon also described in Franz Fanon a seminal w Ork Black faces White masks a she was taught As and considered herself a frenchwoman from abroad. In Raven Briick Hellen on rediscovers her Black Caribbean history and her Black identity which is represented by the Black god she invents for All Blacks in the world Agenor. In dialogue with Agenor and with the moral and physical support of three women a Suzanne a White member of the. French resistance the senegalese a Lac and the Black american Carol a she gains strength and the will to live a Suzanne is modelled on Suzanne Busson an actual survivor of Raven Briick and the author of the Book dans is Griffes nazis in the grip of the a nazis a Maillet said. A in a sense she is also a kind of reflection of the other Side of the Hellen on person. Her person is a kind of Sidonie Suzanne personality a. A Aglae and a chinese prisoner Nadine ate also modelled on historical people whom Maillet found in her studies before writing the novel. Sunday july 24.1901 . Is amps de Rosavis might la mail let author of Black Star. The Swiss historian Micha Grin was another Ini port a it source for Maillet based in grins studies it is estimated some 2,000 Blacks were imprisoned in nazi concentration Camps. Maillet also met with the african French Singer John William who As a 22-year-old, was arrested in Vichy and deported to the concentration Camp in Germany. Viniam survived and is probably the Only Black person to write about fris experiences in a nazi death Camp. His Book is Toi Aiassi 7u my abandon pcs if you too abandon Methe title of one of his songs was published in Paris in 1990. A i talked to As Many survivors As i could to get understand what the atmosphere in the Camps was like a Maillet said. A in Martinique i studied the history of my country so i could describe Sid Ohie a the fictitious Hellen on was developed from a Brief note in Bussong a Book on Raven Briick that Menli Onsa poor frail Black Wooman called Rian Chette whose tuberculosis caused her to cough All Day and night. A a that Sall i had to go on and i went pregnant with her for five years before writing her Story Quot Maillet said. A a then Maillet had a phone Call after appearing on French television to discuss her Book a it was a 77-year-Otd woman from Paris a Cuilty who claimed to have been in Raven Briick with Blanchette. A when i met her i saw the number Tatoo cd on her Arm i Only had two questions about Blanchette was she religious and did she refuse in Cut her Long hair As i had described from intuition the woman said that she and Blanchette prayed together every Day at 4 of clock in the morning and she did not Cut her hair. A on Martinique particularly before the War it was very important to have shoulder length hair and i just knew she have ,�?� Maillet said. Since the publishing of Black Star Maillet 31, has received letters from concentration Camp survivors who claim they can hardly believe that Maillet not a prisoner because she so Well captured the horror of the Camp was awarded the prestigious French prize International Contr racism it la International against racism and anti semitism. Maillet said the reaction to her readings around. Germany have been quiet and there . Feeling of guilt for what germans parents and grandparents coi unfitted. A a i sometimes think they a rather not talk about. It a Maillet said a but at the same time the audience finds no problem identifying with Sidonie and her struggle helps them find another approach to the subject of their recent 1 remember Maillet said racism did not begin with Hitler held non she said faces a double dilemna a immediate destruction through racism in a concentration Camp and the past destruction of her people in the Caribbean through slavery. Slavery a the taboo theme of Maillett a parents and grandparents. Slavery a the subject one did not mention. The great fear generated by past slavery catches up to Hellen on in the concentration Camp but she finds the courage to finally face both a the slavery of forefathers and her own unfortunate situation. Maillet said she Hopes her Book is a source of Hope to All people. At least her Book has filled in some Blank spots in the history of the Catalon of racist policy he fact that Blacks were interned and murdered in nazi concentration Camps was the consequence of a racists ideology that had roots deeper than the third Reich. Such is the focus of j0q years of German racism a Catalon published by the. Cologne society for Christian jewish cooperation in 1988, after world War i the French used moroc can and senegalese troops to occupy parts of Western Germany a fact that caused germans no end of pain. Reacting to what it dubbed a the Black humiliation a Germany a government pleaded with France to withdraw the dark skinned troops from German soil because their presence was shame for the entire White race and the greatest source of irritation to the germans were the children resulting from German moroccan and go Rifkin Senegal est relations. German foreign minister Adolf Kostyr speaking in the Reich tag German parliament on May 5, 1920, said because of the presence of these Blacks forces a the German people in the West Are in danger of a continuous a the Day before All parties in the Reich tag except the used forerunner of the communist party made an Appeal that the a indelible humiliation to Germany by the presence of coloured occupation troops would destroy Honor life and body purity and on april 12,1920, Chancellor Herman Muller speaking in the Reich Stag claimed with indignation a Senegal negroes Are guarding the Goethe House in Frankfurt am in August 1920, the German foreign ministry distributed a brochure in five languages titled the horror on the Rhine and coloured frenchmen on Rhine and Ruhr. Of Jan. 18,1921, the Vatican a ambassador in France appealed to the French government not to use coloured troops in Germany. In december 1924, Germany a Interior ministry announced that it had counted 78 a children of mixed the children were called a Rheinland Bastard Quot Rheinland bastards. On july 21,1927, the bavarian Interior ministry suggests sterilization of the a children of. Mixed blood.�?�. In november the same year the German minister of Interior informed the bavarian that they could not legally sterilize the children. After the Weimar Republic fell the nazis had no problem with the legality of sterilization. He Reavis
