African Colonial Prisoners of the Germans

Through both World Wars, young African conscripts from Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, the Congo and elsewhere found themselves fighting for their colonial rulers, facing unknown enemies in unknown lands. German soldiers regarded their African enemies with a mixture of curiosity and malice, sometimes posing for snapshots with black POWs, sometimes summarily executing them on the battlefield. Mistreated by their own commanders during wartime, African troops had to fight for equal postwar compensation. This book, featuring a collection of never before published photos taken by German soldiers, records the fate of many French Colonial African soldiers during World War I and World War II. The author presents the images in the historical context of imperialism and colonialism.

Paul Garson has a 30-year background in journalism and photography that has produced some 2500 magazine and periodical features, including a number of articles in World War II History and World War II Quarterly. A free-lance writer, he lives in Los Angeles.

Paul Garson
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 216
Bibliographic Info: 264 photos, appendix, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6545-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2542-3
Imprint: McFarland

Preface  1
Introduction  5
Pictorial History  23
Appendix: Organization of the French Army, 1939  201
Further Reading and Viewing  205
Index  207

“the author demonstrates an eye for rank and insignia in analyzing the photographs and has familiarized himself with the French army at the outset of WWII”—H-Net Reviews.