Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany

Rating:
Summary: Searching for identity
Review: I read this book in the original German edition and thus don't know how well the English edition conveys this example of a very "German" post-war destiny. Ika was a 'Besatzungskind' a very negative and subjective term for a child born to a German mother and (most commonly) a G.I. father of the "occupation forces". Her story is just one of a whole babyboomer generation of both white, and mixed-race children - and what a sad story it is, particulary of those little "Black Germans"! Ika's coerced removal from her mother and placement into a Christian institution was a common occurance for 'illegitimate' children of any description. The mothers of Black children were seen as nothing more than whores who were not fit to raise the children they should not have had in the first place. The racially motivated mental and physical abuse that Ika endured makes for painful reading - particularly since the abuse was carried out (as it often was) in the name of Christ and for her salvation. That Ika grew strong, beautiful she is today is a testimony to her strength of character and indomitable spirit. I was so happy for her that she did manage to find her father and come to terms with her struggle over identity. With the growth in recent years of Afro-German associations I hope that many more stories like Ika's will be published. They will give voice to that previously invisible 'Stolen Generation' who now, in middle-age are finally given a change to come to terms with their unique identity.

Rating:
Summary: Searching for identity
Review: I read this book in the original German edition and thus don't know how well the English edition conveys this example of a very 'German' post-war destiny. Ika was a "Besatzungskind" - a very negative and subjective term for a child born to a German mother and a (most commonly) G.I. father from the "occupation forces". Her story is just one of a whole babyboomer generation of both white,and mixed-race children, and what a sad story it is, particulary of those little "Black Germans"! Ika's coerced removal from her mother and placement into a Christian institution was a common occurance for 'illegitimate' children of any description. The mothers of Black children were seen as nothing more than whores who were not fit to raise the children they should not have had in the first place. The racially motivated mental and physical abuse that Ika endured makes for painful reading - particularly since the abuse was carried out (as it often is)in the name of Christ and for her salvation. That Ika managed to grow up into the strong, beautiful person she is today is a testimony to her strength of character and indomitable spirit. I was so happy for her that she did manage to find her father and come to terms with her struggle over identity. With the growth in recent years of Afro-German organisations I hope that many more stories like Ika's will be published. They will give voice to that previously invisible 'Stolen Generation' who now, in middle-age are finally given a change to come to terms with their unique history and identity.
Postscript: As a white contemporary of Ika's I had many class/playmates who were black, with family backgrounds similar to hers. Certainly the Catholic institution (Jugenddorf Klinge in Seckach/Baden) were I spent some years, was not guilty of evil such as experienced by Ika. For a long time now I have wondered about the subsequent fates of my special friend Monika and the other girls I knew.

Rating:
Summary: Searching for identity
Review: I read this book in the original German edition and thus don't know how well the English edition conveys this example of a very 'German' post-war destiny. Ika was a "Besatzungskind" - a very negative and subjective term for a child born to a German mother and a (most commonly) G.I. father from the "occupation forces". Her story is just one of a whole babyboomer generation of both white,and mixed-race children, and what a sad story it is, particulary of those little "Black Germans"! Ika's coerced removal from her mother and placement into a Christian institution was a common occurance for 'illegitimate' children of any description. The mothers of Black children were seen as nothing more than whores who were not fit to raise the children they should not have had in the first place. The racially motivated mental and physical abuse that Ika endured makes for painful reading - particularly since the abuse was carried out (as it often is)in the name of Christ and for her salvation. That Ika managed to grow up into the strong, beautiful person she is today is a testimony to her strength of character and indomitable spirit. I was so happy for her that she did manage to find her father and come to terms with her struggle over identity. With the growth in recent years of Afro-German organisations I hope that many more stories like Ika's will be published. They will give voice to that previously invisible 'Stolen Generation' who now, in middle-age are finally given a change to come to terms with their unique history and identity.
Postscript: As a white contemporary of Ika's I had many class/playmates who were black, with family backgrounds similar to hers. Certainly the Catholic institution (Jugenddorf Klinge in Seckach/Baden) were I spent some years, was not guilty of evil such as experienced by Ika. For a long time now I have wondered about the subsequent fates of my special friend Monika and the other girls I knew.

Rating:
Summary: Searching for identity
Review: I read this book in the original German edition and thus don't know how well the English edition conveys this example of a very 'German'post-war destiny. Ika was a 'Besatzungskind' a very subjective term describing an "occupation forces' child". Her story is just one of a whole babyboomer generation of both white,and mixed-race children of (mainly)U.S. soldiers - and what a sad story it is, particulary for those little 'Black Germans'. Ika's coerced removal from her mother and placement into a Christian (Lutheran)institution was a common occurance for 'illegitimate' children of any description. The mothers of Black children were seen as nothing more than whores who were not fit to raise the children they should have had in the first place. The racially motivated mental and physical abuse that Ika endured makes for painful reading - particularly since the abuse was carried out (as it often is) in the name of Christ and for her salvation. That Ika managed to grow up into the strong, well-balanced person she is today is a testimony to her strength of character and indomitable spirit. I was so happy for her that she did manage to find her father and come to grips with her struggle over identity. With the growth in recent years of Afro-German associations I hope that many more stories like Ika's will be published. They will give voice to that previously invisible 'Stolen Generation' who now, in middle-age are finally given a change to come to terms with their unique identity.
The book ideally should be read along with Hans Massaquoi's "Born to Witness: growing up Black in Nazi Germany".
The detailed social/historic context of his story paints a vivid backdrop to the arrival of the next generation of Black Germans like Ika.
Postscript: As a white contemporary of Ika's I had many class/playmates who were black, with family backgrounds similar to hers. Certainly the Catholic institution (Jugenddorf Klinge in Seckach/Baden) were I spent some years, was not guilty of evil such as experienced by Ika. For a long time now I have wondered about the subsequent fate of my special friend Monika and the other girls I knew.

Rating:
Summary: Touching and Too Short
Review: I still have my 6 page letter addressed to the author, unsigned and unsent, in response to her memoir Invisible Woman: Growing Up Black in Germany. In it I remark how brutally honest she is to detail her childhood and early adulthood in Germany. Starting with the circumstances of her birth--she was conceived as the result of an affair between her African-American GI father and her White German mother--and ending with her tales of recognizing and overcoming her internalized racial self-hatred, discovering the virtues and importance of women's equality through noted writers and activists such as Audre Lorde and Dagmar Schulz and meeting her father for the first time in his home in Illinois, Hugel-Marshall's story is sincere, deeply moving and riveting.

I cringed while reading her accounts of the harsh treatment she experienced at the hands (literally) of the staff at the home she was sent to as a child. This "home" was a place where children (especially the bi-racial Black children of White German women) were made to live out their childhoods and go to school.

Invisible Woman chronicles Ms. Hugel-Marshall's story from early childhood to mature adulthood, but it ended abruptly and didn't give much detail into how race, identity, gender and class affects her in Germany right now. Four stars are given to this courageous book in full acknowledgment that there will always be much more to experience and write about.

I'll be sending Ika my letter after all.

Rating:
Summary: At Home Underway: Growing Up Black in Germany
Review: Soon after I began reading Ms Marshall's book I experienced a thrill of recognition. In the brutally honest account of her child and early adulthood in Germany, her stories of recognizing and overcoming her internalized racial self-hatred, I remembered and re-lived some of my own similar experiences growing up as a light-skinned, adopted black child in the black community in Baltimore Maryland.

Ms. Marshall's harsh treatment at the hands of the staff at the home she was sent to as a child sheds light on the brutal and uncaring treatment many children, especially children of color, still experience today. Her writing is both personal and informative (she quotes several government documents of her childhood that "institutionalized" the racist treatment of Afro-Germans) and draws the reader into her story so that one cannot help but become caught up with her as she tells it. I found it difficult to put it down.

That she survived such a childhood and has become both a strong woman and outspoken opponent of racism in Germany, is a testement to her inner power and strength, as well as to the love she received from her mother before she was taken from her at the age of six years old.

Ms. Marshall is still fighting the demons of racism in a country that carries its nationalism in it's breast pocket, as it were. It's not that bad in the US of A...yet.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible book
Review: This book was terrible. All the author does is whine. After the first few chapters it gets tiring to keep reading about how everything that goes wrong in her life is because of white people. There were times in the book where people tried to give her constructive advice, but the author dismisses it as "racism." I'll bet she was a pain in the rear to deal with and that has nothing to do with her skin color. I'd also bet that there were other children in that boarding school that were white and illegitimate and suffered just as much as she did. A white guy married her, so how bad could it have been? I was never so glad to end a book and am tossing it into the trash.

Rating:
Summary: A Damn Good Book!
Review: This is the only book that ever made me shed a tear. All I can say is "READ IT!" It's a truly inspiring story.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible book
Review: This is the only book that ever made me shed a tear. All I can say is "READ IT!" It's a truly inspiring story.