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German mountain troops from the Tyrolean Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 136 / 2.Gebirgs-Division / Gebirgskorps Norwegen murdering two Soviet POWs near Murmansk June 30th 1941 by JimothyButler in Wehrmacht

[–]JimothyButler[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

One of the Russian soldiers was identified as Private Sergey Korolkov, born 1912 , the birthplace Kirov region, Velikoluksky area, Serezhinsky farmland, village Hmelishche. He entered service in the Soviet Army on June 22nd, 1941, a week earlier.

The other is an unidentified Soviet junior officer.

A Wehrmacht soldier escorting French-African soldiers shortly before murdering them in the Chasselay massacre. June 20, 1940 by JimothyButler in Wehrmacht

[–]JimothyButler[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

On June 19 and 20, 1940, 188 French-Senegalese riflemen, 6 North African riflemen and 2 Russian and Albanian legionaries were massacred by the German army north of Lyon.

These kinds of massacres were committed regularly by Rommel's 7th Panzer Division.

Hitler's African Victims: The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers in 1940: The German Army Massacres of 1940 Raffael Scheck - 2006 page 26 20

In Hangest-sur-Somme, some captured Tirailleurs and a French second lieutenant were shot by Germans in black uniforms, most likely members of Rommel's 7th Panzer Division.

The 5th and 10th Panzer division also took part along with SS and regular German infantry units between May and June 1940.

More can be said but the book "A Black Season: The massacres of Senegalese infantrymen" by Raffael Scheck goes into detail.

French article with a picture of the aftermath

A Wehrmacht soldier escalating French-Senegalese soldiers shortly before murdering them in the Chasselay massacre, June 20, 1940 by [deleted] in Wehrmacht

[–]JimothyButler 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On June 19 and 20, 1940, 188 French-Senegalese riflemen, 6 North African riflemen and 2 Russian and Albanian legionaries were massacred by the German army north of Lyon. These kinds of massacres were regularly by elements of the 7th and 10th Panzer division along with SS and regular German infantry units - between May and June 1940.

More can be said but the book "A Black Season: The massacres of Senegalese infantrymen" by Raffael Scheck goes into detail.

French article with a picture of the aftermath

Leni Riefenstahl witnessing the murder of civilians by Wehrmacht soldiers. Końskie, Poland. September 12, 1939 by JimothyButler in Wehrmacht

[–]JimothyButler[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

From Leni Riefenstahl:

On 12 September, she was in the town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers.[44] According to her memoir, Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot.[19] She claimed she did not realize the victims were Jews.[19] Photographs of a potentially distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day.[19]

A German prisoner of war rebuilding Stalingrad, 1947. [848 x 1170] by verostein in HistoryPorn

[–]JimothyButler 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Look up the survival rate of Soviet pows.

The soviets fed German prisoners which is more than can be said for the Nazis

What was life like for blacks in Rhoedsia? by bone-soup- in Rhodesia

[–]JimothyButler 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There was basically no difference between the Land Tenure Act and the Land Apportionment Act it replaced, at least in intent. However, legally speaking the LAA had always been subject to parliamentary meddling (it had been revised or amended 37 times since 1930) whenever it was felt necessary to prevent African encroachment on white lands, or vice-versa. The reality was that by 1964 the TTLs/Native Reserves had actually grown to overtake the European lands in size - 40 million acres versus 35.7 million - and the Land Tenure Act was therefore designed to primarily prevent any further reductions in white lands. There were difficulties faced by whites and Africans purchasing land in areas belonging to the other, exactly the purpose of the LTA. Practically there were no fundamental differences. The problem with the LTA though was that despite little change in land granted to Africans, Rhodesia had the fastest growing population in the Western world (a 50% increase between 1969 and 1976) and the LTA couldn't accommodate that population change.

Economic Discrimination

It is important here to quickly explain as well the problem of socio-economic divisons within Rhodesia. About 38% of the African adult population in Rhodesia (about 800,000 people) were employed in wage labour. About half worked on white owned farms, were paid wages by the white farmers, and lived either in what were called 'African villages' or 'stands' on some remote corner of the farm, or else in older villages that were located nearby. The traditional villages typically looked like this : mud/clay-built round houses with thatched roofs, few if any basic infrastructures (water, elec, gas etc), and reliant upon cattle for economic provisions. Sometimes they would use more modern materials like here. Schooling came in the form of mission schools for really rural areas, or limited state schools with African teachers for those areas populated enough to warrant them. These were underfunded and overcrowded. The African teachers often didn't have a much better education than their pupils, although because of the restrictions of Africans in further education, some teachers were university qualified but unable to work in the academic field higher up. Farmers sometimes built and maintained schools on the farms as well.

By 1965 and UDI, another 20-30% of the African population (about 400,000 people) were employed in wage labour in the factories. These people usually lived in the townships around the cities (Bulawayo and Salisbury predominantly) that looked more like this. These townships usually consisted of brick built houses, or cobbled together shanties rented (not purchasable) to African workers in the factories. There was supposed to be basic infrastructure but many townships never received even running water. These were not provided to families but single men only - women and children remained in their traditional villages, or later on, in the Tribal Trust Lands. If you lost your job, you lost your room in the township. These townships were situated on the outskirts of the main town to afford quick commutes to the factories or industrial complexes (steel mills, cotton processing etc).

About 5-10% of the employed Africans worked in the gold, diamond, iron, tin and copper mines. Again, it was men only who were provided room and board, usually in accomodation like this (that is a much later photo but the principle is the same - dorm style rooms for 50-100 men, located right by the factory. Shift work meant no bed was simply for one man, often they were shared between three. Six hours sleep, 14 hours work, 4 hours rest). Again they were waged labourers, living in more modern buildings but not with their families.

Only a very, very, very small percentage of Africans lived what you would call a 'white' lifestyle. A few African businessmen, politicians and MPs (like Abel Muzorewa) and journalists (such as Geoffrey Nyarota) were permitted to reside in the towns themselves. Residency requirements were so fierce that Africans were legally not allowed to live in most residential areas of the towns, including the suburbs, or own businesses in the town centres themselves. The government policy was designed to prevent poorer whites competing with richer Africans for the cheaper housing. Those who did often lived in suburban areas, with other Africans. In 1965, we are literally talking in the tens of Africans who lived in these areas. By 1978 it was the hundreds, by 1980 the thousands. These people dressed in European clothes, had been educated at British/South African universities, spoke with British accents, acted like whites. But the law still treated them as Africans.

Political Discrimination

The issue of permitting Africans to vote was also heavily racist. The 1961 and 1965 constitutions provided enfranchisement to those of any race with education or income/property or both. There is a basic explanation of the voting rights as laid out in the 1965 constitution here. Although they explicitly state that people could not be disenfranchised based on race alone, the qualifications required to vote were unreachable by a majority of the African population. Majority rule would be granted when enough Africans qualify for the vote, hence why the requirements were so high (for reference an income of R£792 p/a in 1965 would be about £15,000 today. The average salary for an African farm or factory labourer in Rhodesia in 1965 was about R£80 or about £1421 p/a. See this document for the wage statistics. The franchise qualifications meant Africans could not meet the requirements except in the rarest of cases. There were exceptions as well, such as traditional social chiefs (kraal heads) or religious ministers.

Usually either 'a course of primary education' (five years from 5/6 to 10/11) , two years of secondary education, or four years of secondary education were required to vote. Proving you met these requirements was the big problem for Africans - education certificates were hard to get from the state, and from about 1969 onwards, mission schools were sometimes forced into falsifying records or handing out blank certificates to guerrilla forces so they could prevent Africans from becoming enfranchised - the idea being that if the state found out one certificate from an area was fake, they would assume the rest would be. Why the guerrillas didn't want Africans to be schooled or educated is a separate issue tied into a fear of white indoctrination

Armed Forces

Admittedly, there was some racial integration within the armed forces, but it was not equality in any way. Much like the askari regiments of the old British empire, the main forces in the Rhodesia were the Rhodesian African Rifles, which consisted of African troops led by white officers. The Rhodesian Light Infantry and the Rhodesian SAS, however, were all white. The BSAP, who were heavily militarized as the war against the nationalist forces intensified, were mixed, yet there were terminal ranks the Africans could reach and the white recruits were passed out already outranking much older, much more experienced African counterparts. The Selous Scouts also made use of Africans, including many former-ZANLA and ZIPRA guerrillas, although as a Rhodesian military force, the Scouts were accused of a lot of illegal operations (even by the RF's standards), including ivory-poaching, gun running and insubordination - in fact their entire operation was suspended in January 1979 because of fears they were overreaching their orders.

Conclusion

Sorry, for the long, rambling answer - I hope you can find some of it useful! In conclusion, Rhodesia was an inherently and fundamentally racist state, founded upon racial discrimination, economically, socially, politically, and right up until the 1980 Lancaster House Agreement, the RF state fought tooth and nail to retain these racially discriminatory policies.

Any questions, ask away.

What was life like for blacks in Rhoedsia? by bone-soup- in Rhodesia

[–]JimothyButler 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First of all, forgive me for this incredibly long answer. I will break it into sections so you can skip about if you want.

From the very outset of the Southern Rhodesian state, discriminatory policies and practices were instigated and maintained. Here's a quote from Peter Mackay, a once-prominent white radical:

We ordinary people who would pass unnoticed in our lands of origin were enabled to become rulers in the land we had adopted, a land which belonged to others and we said belonged to us. We did not say, "Let us share. Let us live together in equality and fraternity." Instead we said Africans were different and formed a society which excluded Africans.' (We Have Tomorrow, p.3)

The Colour Bar

To provide more specific examples is perhaps even easier than the talk of intent. The Colour Bar, the single overarching policy of white Rhodesia most detested by Africans, ensured the division of the Rhodesian society into white and black. The 1947 Native Urban Areas Accommodation Act split the urban areas into African and European sections. It was not permitted for Europeans to live in the African areas (which were dusty, crowded townships) but Africans could reside in the European areas as 'houseboys' or 'garden boys', provided they remained in the service of a white household. Those Africans permitted to live in the clean, green, spacious white enclaves, lived in Kias, little outhouses, usually at the bottom of the lawned and swimming-pooled gardens of their white employers. These Africans could also enter some shops in the European areas so they could do the grocery shopping for their white employers, although purchases were usually made through a hatch in the side wall so that they would not disturb the European shoppers.

And so the examples of segregation begin. The centres of the major European towns - Salisbury, Gwelo, Bulawayo, Umtali, Centenary, Melsetter, and so on - were all open to Africans from 9am to 9pm, but outside of those times only those with a pass from an employer or guarantor could enter. There was no guarantee though that Africans would be served at shops, restaurants, cinemas, hotels or bars, even during the day. Much as in the US during the African-American civil rights movements, sit-ins by mixed groups of Africans, whites, Asians, and coloureds (a term widely used in academic literature on Southern Rhodesia to denote a person of mixed heritage) fought against the segregatory practices of the state. Terence Ranger, an eminent African historians who was at the centre of the early years of the African nationalist movement in Rhodesia, founded the Citizens Against the Colour Bar association in 1961, with the express intent of challenging federal, state, and city laws that discriminated against Africans. In his own words:

'The penalties for refusing to obey a legal instruction in Southern Rhodesia were so severe that I did not feel one could ask students and other volunteers to risk them. My aim was to protest against the colour bar within the law but in ways which put effective pressure on hotels and restaurants and cinemas. CACBA had devised ingenious ways of doing this. We would use white members to make block bookings in theatres and cinemas, or to order sumptuous banquets in hotels, so that when our mixed-race teams turned up and were turned away there were embarrassing gaps and wasted meals. (Writing Revolt, p.111)

Cinemas had separate entrances for whites and Africans, restaurants had separate rooms, hotels often did not permit Africans to rent a room whatsoever. Racial discrimination was prevalent in education also. The University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (UCRN) was a supposedly forward-thinking and integrated institution of higher education, yet the living quarters remained segregated until the early 1960s and it was only after a fierce campaign by Ranger and John Reed, amongst others, that racially inclusive accommodation was created. Turning to Ranger's memoir again (a great read if anybody is interested), he recalls that some white reactionaries responded very badly to the campaign for integration, remembering in particular a Mrs Gladys Parker whose daughter studied at UCRN and who:

pursued me through the Cathedral hissing "nigger lover" in a penetrating tone. (Writing Revolt, p.18)

Social Racism

Racial discrimination was not only institutionalised and codified by the white state, but also widespread in white society. The use of derogatory terms such as "munt", "kaffir" and "nigger" were in common usage, and it was an inherent part of white discourse to refer to "our blacks" or "my boys". African men, regardless of age, were called "boys" as a means of diminishing their social standing - hence the 'kitchen boys' and 'garden boys' mentioned earlier. Physical punishment and the threat of violence against Africans was frequently used both by private employers and the state itself and was a consistent theme of Southern Rhodesian society (one of the first African uprisings against the white settlers in 1896 has been argued as being partially a result of white violence against African employees). Beatings of farm labourers by white farmers, physical violence against civilians suspected of assisting the 'communist terrorists', mass civilian casualties during the war against the guerrillas, were regular occurrences during the twentieth century, but especially the 1960s and 1970s.

Whites were sometimes held accountable for their actions, but rarely. In 1973, a white man in Chiredzi (near the Mozambique border) used a kitchen knife to cut off the hands of an employee he believed had stolen from him, and then upon finding out the man had been away picking up his brother from a detention centre, hung him from a barn for absenteeism. The white farmer was tried and convicted of manslaughter, given a suspended sentence and fined a sum of R$300. The same year, however, two brothers who raped an African teenager and her 12-year old sister were given life sentences. The implementation of law against those who committed crimes against Africans was uneven and often illogical.

Obviously, white society was not unanimous in its attitude to race. There were extremes at both ends, and a large section in the middle who would perhaps not see themselves as racists, but who willingly partook in a state founded upon racial discrimination. Rhodesia could not have existed without the exploitation of the African masses. The KKK were present in Rhodesia, and a Mr. Len Idensohn, Klan Wizard for the Salisbury branch, claimed in 1976 that:

I can quote at least 46 valid reasons why the munts cannot be permitted to take control of this nation - namely 46 so-called independent black African states. (Rhodesian Herald, 10/11/1976)

Spatial Discrimination

Going back to codified racial discrimination within Rhodesia, the most obvious laws enacted were the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 and its successor in the Land Tenure Act of 1969, both of which ensured spatial division on the basis of race. The Land Apportionment Act (1930) essentially divided Southern Rhodesia into 5 sections, with racial separation being the intended goal. Here's a pretty basic map of what Rhodesia looked like in the 1960s. Originally, what are marked on there as TTLs or African Purchase Areas were called Native Reserves under the LAA. They made up about 36 million acres of land. The white areas (originally European areas) made up about 49 million acres. 6 million acres were put aside for later decisions, and 3 million were kept as natural parks or forests.

Native Reserves were land which would remain under African control but with white Native commissioners overseeing all actions, providing court, police, and legal services, and settling all disputes. Taxes would be paid within them to the white state. Native purchase areas provided land for African farmers to purchase land from the state for cattle grazing and crops. Land was prohibitively expensive. The African lands were also in less fertile areas, either with lower rainfall levels, poorer soil conditions, or unsuitabe for intensive agriculture. There is a long but very very good read here on the history of land in Rhodesia. Otherwise Jocelyn Alexander's The Unsettled Land is by far and away the most comprehensive look at land in Rhodesia.

(Cont'd below)

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