The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945

by Nicholas Stargardt

Across Germany, audiences recoiled in horror and disgust from the French West African troops they saw on screen: ‘The French and English let such animals loose on us – the Devil take them!’ and ‘That’s an infamy for a civilised nation which debases England and France for ever!’ were typical exclamations. In Reichenberg, women confessed they felt paralysed with fear by the ‘coloured’ faces, and could breathe again only when German soldiers reappeared on screen. In many cinemas, according to the SD, audiences shouted: ‘Shoot these black beasts immediately after taking them prisoner.’ Fritz Probst agreed, warning his wife that ‘no one would have survived if this rabble had reached Germany’. What went unreported, except in private letters such as Hans Albring’s, was that several thousand Senegalese soldiers were butchered as they tried to surrender or when already in captivity.