Web pages ID Cards Testimonies (Video) Artifacts Music Photographs Historical Films Historical Documents Maps Animated Maps Museum Education Research History Remembrance Conscience Join & donate

Play audio Interview with Olympic athlete John Woodruff.

February BLACK HISTORY MONTH The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. The number of black people living in Nazi-occupied Europe was relatively small and there was no systematic program for their elimination.

The racist nature of the Nazi regime was disguised briefly during the Olympic Games in Berlin in August 1936, when 18 African American athletes competed for the U.S. team. Military service also confronted black soldiers with the horrors of the Holocaust, both as prisoners of war and as liberators. Follow the links below to explore some of the intersections between black history and the Holocaust. American troops, including African American soldiers from the Headquarters and Service Company of the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion, 8th Corps, U.S. 3rd Army, view corpses stacked behind the crematorium during an inspection tour of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Among those pictured is Leon Bass (the soldier third from left). Buchenwald, Germany, April 17, 1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #83761 See more photographs Links: Blacks during the Holocaust Josef Nassy Nazi Olympics African American Responses Jim Crow America African American Athletes Racism Annotated Bibliography Destined to Witness: Growing up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi

African Americans were among the liberators of the Buchenwald concentration camp. William Scott, seen here during training, was a military photographer and helped document Nazi crimes in the camp. Alabama, United States, March 1943. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #86235 See more photographs

Did you know... Movements to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games surfaced in the United States and other countries. Debate focused on the morality of supporting Olympic Games hosted by the racist and antisemitic Nazi regime. 18 African American athletes competed in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, winning 14 medals. The continuing social and economic discrimination black athletes faced after returning to the United States emphasized the irony of their victory in racist Germany. Some African Americans, caught in German-occupied Europe during World War II, became victims of the Nazi regime. The United States military was still segregated during World War II.