Ambivalent Ambition

wildunicornherd:

liquornspice:

Now that “Red Tails” is coming out, a part of my family history

eshusplayground:

Only a couple of years ago, my mom told me that my grandfather was one of the Black GIs who liberated a concentration camp. I don’t recall when he shared this information with her, whether as a child or later as an adult, but I vividly remember how she said that he described the inmates as looking like skeletons. I don’t recall the name of the camp, and my grandfather is not in any condition to tell me more.

But I did do some research and found out about eyewitness accounts of Black soldiers being the first non-German faces that concentration camp survivors encountered (which is how they knew the soldiers weren’t Nazis). Unfortunately, I don’t have access to any military records for my grandfather, so I can’t find out which battalion he was a part of. However, it’s most likely that he was part of the Dachau or the Buchenwald liberation.

For a long time, I’ve been reluctant to share this with (White) people, as they tend to immediately deny that this could have happened, despite the fact that, oh, the survivors themselves say that it was Black soldiers who freed them and despite the fact that, oh, regardless of whatever valor or prowess Black soldiers demonstrated in WWII, “official channels” are not likely to record or preserve their deeds.

For all their bullshit about the Greatest Generation and all that, it’s really fucking sickening how little of that history is explored when it comes to Black soldiers, especially when considering how much they risked and sacrificed to fight for a country that hated the fact that they lived and were free.

:|

never learned about this

black people? erased from jewish history? well i never