Black People under Nazi Rule: Perspectives on the 'Racial State'

Prof Eve Rosenhaft visits The Wiener Library to discuss her research as part of Black History Month. Among the groups targeted by National Socialist policies of racial exclusion and elimination between 1933 and 1945 were the members of a small black population, most of them of African origin.

Official policies towards them and the quality of their experiences have received relatively little attention from specialist historians; the only published monograph study relies entirely on English-language sources.

This talk draws on new research in a range of private and official sources to explore that history and consider how what happened to black people in Germany and occupied Europe reflects on our understanding of Nazi racial policy more generally.