From Publishers Weekly
In a unique addition to the literature of life under the Third Reich, Massaquoi, a former managing editor of Ebony magazine, chronicles his life as the son of a German nurse and Al-Haj Massaquoi, the son of the Liberian consul general to Germany. Soon after his birth in Hamburg in 1926, the author's father returned to Liberia to bolster his family's failing stature in national politics, leaving his wife and son to grapple with everyday life amid the rise of fascism in Germany. The Reich's racial politics were so steadfastly drummed into German schoolchildren that the young Hans quickly acquired an anti-Semitic outlook only to realize that he was also subject to discrimination as a non-Aryan. He sought intellectual escape from German nationalism through reading books by Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and James Fenimore Cooper; in his idealization of African-American athletes Joe Lewis and Jesse Owens; and by learning how to play jazz and his involvement with the "swingboys" officially condemned as purveyors of "degenerate" music and dance. Massaquoi and his mother survived both Nazi rule and the devastating 1943 British bombing of Hamburg. He tells of life after the war, of befriending black American soldiers, of moving to Liberia in 1948 and of his subsequent move to America in 1950, where he came to feel that racism was as prevalent as it had been under the Third Reich. Thoughtful and well written, Massaquoi's memoir adds nuance to our comprehension of 20th-century political and personal experience. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Massaquoi, the retired managing editor of Ebony, presents an unusual perspective on the Nazi era. The son of an "Aryan" mother and an African diplomat, he grew up in Germany on the wrong side of Nazi racial ideology, confronting not only the bigotry of his countrymen but the danger of Allied bombs on a nearly daily basis. Even after his postwar immigration to the United States and service with the U.S. Army in Korea, the author sees his life as one of witness to racial inequality. His journey from Nazi Germany to the post-Civil Rights United States makes for interesting reading, recounted with an eye for detail and a humanity that is appealing. Although there were many individuals like Massaquoi, few took the path he did, and probably few could write about it with such force. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AFrederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Massaquoi, a man of mixed racial heritage, survived 12 years of Nazi terror in Germany during World War II. The son of a German mother and a Liberian father, he grew up in a country that became progressively obsessed with racial purity, where Massaquoi was unable to escape racist taunts and hostilities. He recalls his early, naive acceptance and even admiration of Hitler, even in the face of creeping racial animosities, primarly aimed at Jews but slowly encompassing other non-Aryan people as well. By adolescence, embittered by his perpetual outsider status, Massaquoi had come to grips with the reality of his situation and that of his mother. Through sports figures Joe Louis and Jesse Owens, Massaquoi attached his racial identity to that of black Americans and became obsessed with coming to the U.S. After the war, he settled temporarily in Liberia with his father's family before journeying to the U.S. and eventually becoming a reporter with Ebony magazine. Massaquoi's background and experiences provide incredible context to this personal story of overcoming racism. Vanessa Bush


From Kirkus Reviews
Massaquoi, of mixed African-German parentage, came of age in Nazi Germany; he depicts the trauma of his childhood, and his improbable survival of it, in a nuanced, startling memoir. As a small boy, Massaquoi was fascinated and moved by Hitler and seduced by Nazi busywork and organized pageantry. Thus he felt exceptionally betrayed upon realizing that there was no place for a non-Aryan such as himself in the Reich. Although his devoted mutti protected him fiercely (his father had returned to Liberia), he encountered virulent abuse at school and was dehumanized by the Nuremburg Laws, which essentially barred him from public life, whether from a playground or from the Hitlerjugend, which all his chums joined. Things became much worse during the war years, when, perversely, he repeatedly escaped the worst fate by a hairbreadth. This included nearly being discovered race mixing by the SS and surviving the protracted fire bombing that leveled his beloved Hamburg. Massaquois unique, pathos-filled childhood in extremis is rendered superlatively, as is his portrait of a prewar Germany giddily embarked on its own destruction; he keenly perceives both the nefarious ambiguity and the human tragedy inherent in this civic embrace of evil. Also, his depiction of postwar anguish, and his own emergence as a hipster black-marketer befriended by cynical, reefer-smoking black GIs among whom he was thrilled to pass, is highly engaging. Less so, however, are the instances when his narrative turns soft or vaguely contemplative; the interesting tale of his eventual repatriation to Liberia to meet his volatile, powerful father is necessarily less profound than earlier chapters. Massaquoi later immigrated to the US; a journalist, he was managing editor of Ebony magazine. Although the bizarre singularity of the child Massaquois plight is central to the work, it is the journalist Massaquois close eye for the subtleties of personal and social behavior, as well as a rather daring digressive structural and prose style, that makes this unusual tale both substantiative and memorable. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


-Booklist
"Massaquoi's background and experiences provide incredible context to this personal story of overcoming racism."



"Filled with courage, feeling, and intelligence...intriguing."


Publishers Weekly
"A unique addition to life under the Third Reich...thoughtful and well written."


'The Miami Herald
Harrowing.


'Washington Post Book World
Extraordinary...an entirely engaging story of accomplishment despite adversity.


'Emerge
Riveting and unique...An indispensable addition to writing on the Holocaust era.


'Ebony
Moving...an engaging story of a young man's journey through hate, self-enlightenment, intrigue and romance.


Book Description
This is a story of the unexpected. In Destined to Witness, Hans Massaquoi has crafted a beautifully rendered memoir -- an astonishing true tale of how he came of age as a black child in Nazi Germany. The son of a prominent African and a German nurse, Hans remained behind with his mother when Hitler came to power, due to concerns about his fragile health, after his father returned to Liberia. Like other German boys, Hans went to school; like other German boys, he swiftly fell under the Fuhrer's spell. So he was crushed to learn that, as a black child, he was ineligible for the Hitler Youth. His path to a secondary education and an eventual profession was blocked. He now lived in fear that, at any moment, he might hear the Gestapo banging on the door -- or Allied bombs falling on his home. Ironic,, moving, and deeply human, Massaquoi's account of this lonely struggle for survival brims with courage and intelligence.


About the Author
Hans J. Massaquoi emigrated to the United States in the early 1950s. He served in the U.S. Army and then became a journalist for Johnson Publishing, where he was managing editor of Ebony magazine. He was an active participant in the civil rights movement. The father of two sons, Hans lives with his wife, Katherine, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A great deal of Holocaust survival stories revolve around disguise--many Jews were forced into impersonation by the desperateness of their plight. Imagine if a person, by the accident of birth, was deigned a target of Nazi hatred but hadn't an option of disguise. The son of a well-to-do African and a white German nurse, Hans lived a privileged toddler's life befitting the grandson of a diplomat. Concern for Hans's frail health caused his mother to remain with him in Germany when his grandfather and father were compelled to return to Liberia. He and his mother become part of Hamburg's poor working class, forced to live in a cramped attic apartment without hot water and electricity. But their change in social status was to be only the beginning of their hardships. For twelve agonizing years following Hitler's rise to power, Hans, like all non-Aryans, was dehumanized and devalued by the Nazis. Living in constant fear of death, by either the Gestapo executioners or Allied bombs, Hans's existence became increasingly precarious until liberation by British troops in 1945. What sets Hans's story apart from other memoirs of the Holocaust era is that his high visibility made him an easily recognizable target, stranded without the comfort of a racial community of any sort. Destined to Witness is a memoir filled with courage, feeling, and intelligence that will touch readers everywhere.

FROM THE CRITICS

Miami Herald

Harrowing.

Emerge

Riveting and unique...An indispensable addition to writing on the Holocaust era.

Washington Post Book World

Extraordinary...an entirely engaging story of accomplishment despite adversity.

New Orleans Times-Picayune

A cry against racism, a survivor's tale, a wartime adventure, a coming of age story, and a powerful tribute to a mother's love.

Ebony

Moving...an engaging story of a young man's journey through hate, self-enlightenment, intrigue and romance. Read all 10 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

To say that Hans Massaquoi had it all, is not to say only that he had Black skin, in Germany, where and when White skin and Aryan blood were revered nor to suggest that he lived without money when only money could have saved him and his mother from the degradation of racial hate and deprivation. Massaquoi, indeed, did have it all, keen observation, an important intelligence and a remarkable memory. Here is a story rarely lived and even more rarely told. We need this book for a balanced picture of the Holocaust, which was not only a Jewish thing. Hate is hate, it knows no color, and knows all colors all too well. — Maya Angelou