African Colonial Prisoners of the Germans

A Pictorial History of Captive Soldiers in the World Wars

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.