Germany's Black Holocaust: 1890-1945

by Carr, Firpo

  Perhaps even more intriguing is the possibility of Black African Witnesses—not just from the Nazi time period, but as far back as the Namibian massacre—who may also be entitled to some form of reparation.

  Black African Witness Victims

  of Attempted Genocide?

  As noted in Chapter One of this book, Africans were victims of genocide at the hands of colonial Germany. Given today’s climate of repayment for past injustices, this qualifies as one of any number of heretofore unmentioned scenarios involving European subjugation of Africa.

  One of these silent scenarios gives birth to another seemingly impossible question that predates the Black involuntary involvement in Nazi Germany:

  Could one find Black African Witnesses among the people of Namibia shortly after World War I (1914-1918) who, like all Black victims of that time period, would be entitled to reparations from the present-day German government?

  Quite possibly. As mentioned in the official history book of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the following interesting campaign is documented:

  [I]n the late 1920’s, the Witnesses in Cape Town, South Africa, mailed out 50,000 booklets to all farmers, lighthouse keepers, forest rangers, and others living off the beaten track. An up-to-date postal directory was also obtained for all of South-West Africa (now known as Namibia), and a copy of the booklet The Peoples Friend was mailed to everyone whose name appeared in that directory.[172]

  Whether or not Germany’s genocidal efforts penetrated the ranks of those Africans who in one way or another were associated with the organization that came to known as Jehovah’s Witnesses is not known at this time.

  In any event, the intriguing point to be made here is that lily-white, Aryan Witnesses of the Nazi Germany era were treated just like charcoal Black, “inferior” Africans of the colonial Germany era. Both groups suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of the German government at the time.

  And, once again, this further proves the completely justifiable position taken that German members of the religious group known as Jehovah’s Witnesses were indeed, as far as the Nazis were concerned, the “‘Negroes’ of Europe.”

  Witness Omission?

  Although the literature of the Watch Tower Society speaks extensively about the inhuman treatment followers unjustly suffered at the hands of Nazi persecutors, we found no mention of Blacks being targeted by the Nazis in Witness publications.[††††††††††††††]

  The Witnesses are not alone though. They quote certain Holocaust experts who, as well meaning as they are, also neglect to speak of the staggering Black pain, suffering, and death during the Holocaust.[173]

  One of these well-known experts is Dr. Christine King of England, whom the author has been privileged to meet.

  Dr. King, in her excellent book, The Nazi State and the New Religions: Five Case Studies in Non-Conformity (1982), discusses the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nazi Germany. She gives the Witnesses well-deserved praise for standing up to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi movement.

  Her name is well established in Witness publications.[‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡] But since her work highlights religious as opposed to ethnic interaction with Nazism, she does not focus on the plight of Blacks—as far as I can tell—especially those who may have been Witnesses.

  Jewish institutions that memorialize the plight of Jews in the Holocaust also have not given a full disclosure of the Black experience in Nazi Germany. This is notable in that other unfortunate groups have received such attention in various ways.

  Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., as well as the Museum of Tolerance and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California—all of which the author has visited—do not focus on the fact that the Nazis especially singled out Blacks for extermination.

  Is receiving recognition as having been victims of the Nazi Holocaust important to the Witnesses? Indeed it is. The most recent manifestation of this understandable desire is seen in the 2003 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

  Please note what is stated in the impressive work with regard to due recognition under the heading, “In Remembrance of Their Steadfastness.”

  For more than 30 years, the Buchenwald Memorial, at the former Nazi concentration camp, made no mention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Witnesses simply did not fit into the concept that the East German authorities had of victims and opposers of the Nazi regime. Even today many people in Germany find it hard to acknowledge the Witnesses’ unique record of steadfastness. Therefore, May 9, 2002, was a particularly meaningful day. A plaque commemorating the Witnesses who suffered in Buchenwald was unveiled by Mr. R. Lüttgenau, the deputy director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. … The plaque gives prisoners who wore the purple triangle their due place among the victims of the Nazi regime.[174]

  This act is to be applauded. Although it cannot undo the horrors that Witnesses and others faced during the Nazi Holocaust, the plaque does indeed give Witness prisoners “their due place among the victims of the Nazi regime.”

  Like the Witness organization that realizes that recognition does have its place in this entire unfortunate scenario, the townspeople of Wereth, Belgium have also come to the realization that recognition for Black victims is also important.

  For this reason, to their inestimable credit, some years ago these Belgians produced a long overdue memorial in recognition of the oft-forgotten Black victims of the Nazi Holocaust. An anonymous researcher at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum makes this observation:

  The story of blacks during the time of the Holocaust has been sadly neglected, but the townspeople of Wereth, Belgium recently remembered those African Americans who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis. In 1989, a monument was dedicated in their honor. Holocaust scholars, not unlike the townspeople of Wereth, must continue the search and add to the testament so that the world will remember the blacks who died under the racist and brutal Nazi regime.[175]

  A wonderful but rare acknowledgement. This is not to suggest, however, that the Witnesses are obliged to go as far as did the good citizens of Wereth, Belgium.

  But, it is my sincere hope that at some point in the not-too-distant future the Witnesses see fit to at least mention Blacks in their list of victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

  Sadly, the Witness chapter in the history of Nazism did not reach its conclusion at the end of World War II. A tragic incident in recent years, far too close for comfort, bears this out. This is disturbingly illustrated in our next subheading.

  Neo-Nazis and a Witness Family:

  A Contemporary Tragedy

  Members of White supremacist groups are incarcerated in American jails and prisons across the country for various violent acts against Blacks and others.

  In some instances, males associated with these groups have actually murdered African Americans, Africans visiting or who were living in the United States, and others. These were desperate acts to rid the world of “the mud races.”

  Unfortunately, at least in one notorious case, two young male neo-Nazi skinheads (“neo” is Latin for “new”) murdered, in cold blood, two Euro-American Witnesses who obviously did not hold views anywhere near those held by the neo-Nazis, or any other White supremacist group.

  Who were the White American members of the religious group known as Jehovah’s Witnesses that were killed by the two neo-Nazi skinheads? David (“Dennis”) Freeman, 54, and his wife, Brenda Freeman, 48, the parents of the very neo-Nazis that murdered them.

  Also murdered was the 11-year-old brother of the two neo-Nazi skinheads, young Eric Freeman. And finally, who are the young, teenaged neo-Nazis themselves? Meet Bryan Freeman, 17, and David Freeman, 15.

  Their story, yes, the entire chilling scenario, is detailed below. (The author shows the Nazi/Witness connection by emphasizing everything in bold or italicized print below.)

  Allentown, PA—March 2, 1995—Eric Freeman wa
s stabbed and bludgeoned to death along with his father, David Freeman, 54. Eric’s mother, Brenda, 48, was stabbed in the back.

  Eric’s two older brothers, Bryan Freeman, 17 and David Freeman, 15, have been charged with three counts of murder. A cousin, Nelson Benjamin Birdwell, III, 18 has been charged with probation violation and obstructing an investigation. All three were arrested in Michigan, about 500 miles from the murder scene.

  The two brothers, who were skinheads, were an imposing site and one neighbor stated after they were arrested that he was now able to walk outside without fear and looking over his shoulder for them. He said that they were people you had to be wary of as you never really knew what they would do and people were scared of them.

  David stands 6-foot-3, weighs 245 pounds and has “Sieg Heil!” etched above his eyebrows. Bryan, who has “Berserker” tattooed on his forehead, is 6 feet tall and weighs 215 pounds.

  The brothers constantly challenged the authority of their Jehovah’s Witness parents...smoking in their driveway, collecting Nazi paraphernalia and tattooing Nazi slogans on their foreheads, police said. Their parents had sought help in controlling their sons from the Anti Defamation League of B’Nai Birth, which monitors hate groups; Toughlove International and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, among others. Their mother told people at those agencies that she was afraid of her sons and feared for her family’s safety.

  According to Birdwell, the cousin’s mother, her son told her he was not involved in the killing and hid in a bedroom while his aunt, uncle and cousin were killed just steps away. She said her son fled with the brothers because he feared for his life too. “He was in shock,” she said of her son. “He only left with them because he was scared. He thought they would kill him too.” She also said her shaven head son told her that the killing was not planned.

  She said the youths were making noise in the basement of the Freeman home at about midnight after they returned from seeing a movie. “Brenda went downstairs to scold them and that set Bryan off,” Birdwell said. “Ben ran into the bedroom and hid.”

  Police found Erik and his father dead in their beds and Brenda near a bedroom the older brothers shared.

  The district attorney said Birdwell admitted that he heard thumps and did not intervene. He said he did not believe that he was afraid of his cousins.

  Dec. 1, 1995—David Freeman pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, admitting he bludgeoned his father with an aluminum baseball bat but denying he killed his younger brother.

  The 16-year-old was sentenced to life in prison without parole, a week after his brother, Bryan, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing their mother. Bryan, 17, received the same sentence.

  “Why did you do it?” Judge Lawrence J. Brenner asked David.

  “I don’t know,” David replied.

  Brenner gave a lengthy explanation of first-degree murder. David yawned and rubbed his thick red beard.

  Prosecutors dropped the death penalty in plea bargains with the Freemans, who each had been charged with three counts of homicide in the deaths of their parents, Brenda and Dennis, and their 11-year-old brother, Erik.

  The pleas close the case against the Salisbury Township teens but leave open a question: Who killed Erik?

  At a hearing in Lehigh County Court, David said his cousin, Nelson “Ben” Birdwell III, assisted in the attack on the father.

  “Did you ... attack and kill your brother, Erik Freeman?” defense lawyer Brian Collins asked David.

  “No,” David said.

  Birdwell, 18, who was captured with the Freemans in Michigan, initially was charged only with hindering their apprehension. Police later charged him with three counts of homicide after learning that Dennis’ blood was on Birdwell’s shirt and that Birdwell had given inconsistent statements.

  Birdwell first said he went on a road trip with his cousins. He later said he hid in the house during the killings and fled with the brothers because he feared them.

  District Attorney Robert Steinberg said there have been no discussions with Birdwell’s lawyer, Richard Makoul, about a plea bargain. The lawyers are to meet with a judge in two weeks to discuss the status of the case.

  “I think, more than likely, we’ll wind up going to trial,” Steinberg said.

  In his first statement to police, David did not implicate Birdwell in the killings. David said he beat his sleeping father, then went to Erik’s room and struck him in the face.

  David changed his statement after reading a newspaper that quoted Birdwell’s mother saying her son was not involved in the murders.

  David then told police Birdwell helped him kill the father and it was Birdwell who killed Erik.

  Lawyer Wallace Worth, who, with Collins, was appointed to represent David, said there were no agreements that David would testify against Birdwell.

  Steinberg said he could force David and Bryan to testify in Birdwell’s trial because they no longer have a right against self-incrimination.

  However, the statements Bryan and David gave police can’t be used in Birdwell’s trial.

  David answered, “Yes,” when asked if he understood the plea, the rights he was giving up and the consequences.

  “Why are you pleading guilty here today?” Brenner asked.

  David said, “If I went to trial, I’d get the same thing, probably more.”

  Worth insisted last week that he would not accept a plea bargain to first-degree murder.

  Worth said that after Bryan pleaded guilty, David decided to. “David is pretty much under the spell of his older brother,” Worth said. “He idolizes him.”

  Worth said he was concerned that David was agreeing to the plea just to be with his brother. He said David told him that was not the reason.

  Both brothers may be housed in the state prison at Camp Hill, where defendants under 25 usually are kept. They had shared a cell in the county jail.

  Steinberg tossed aside criticism for accepting the plea bargain. No one knows, he said, whether a jury would have sentenced the brothers to death, and if it had, whether that sentence would be carried out, and when.

  “When you’re 16 or 17, serving the rest of your life in jail is quite a punishment,” Steinberg said. “They will have a difficult life ahead of them.”

  He said the parents’ families were satisfied with the plea. Relatives declined to speak to the press.

  The defense lawyers said there is no evidence that David has a mental illness. They recently notified prosecutors that they were withdrawing the insanity defense, which both brothers intended to use at trial.

  David had been examined by a psychiatrist and psychologist, paid by the county, and they found he did not have any condition that would meet the legal definition of insanity.

  David, who was a 10th grader at Salisbury High School, will turn 17 in February. He had been in several juvenile facilities and had been treated for drug and alcohol abuse. He was in Wyoming Valley Hospital, Quakertown Renewal Centers and the Paradise School for Boys, where he spent 13 months before the killings.

  Steinberg summarized the evidence against David. The evening of the murders, the Freemans and Birdwell went to the movies, where David saw “Murder in the First.”

  The three returned to the Freeman home at 1635 Ehrets Lane. Mrs. Freeman told Birdwell several times to leave, and each time, he sneaked back in the house. When the mother came downstairs the last time to tell Birdwell to go home, Bryan plunged a knife in her back.

  David said his brother told him and Birdwell to go upstairs and “get” the father and Erik.

  Police earlier asked him, “What did that mean to you?”

  “To kill them,” he had said.

  David said they had talked about it before, but he never thought they would really do it.

  David got a 34-inch bat from a hall closet, went to the master bedroom and struck his father in the face and chest. He also cut his throat, Steinberg said.

  “Is that what happened?” the judge ques
tioned David.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Was he (the father) sleeping at that time?” Brenner asked.

  “Yup,” David said.

  “I went to the side of the bed. Hit him a couple times. The knife, I tried to stab him in the chest,” David said.

  The knife bent, and he threw it at the foot of the bed. It had his fingerprints.

  “How hard did you swing?” Brenner asked.

  “Pretty hard,” David said.

  Jeans he had been wearing were stained with his father’s blood. They were found in the house.

  Steinberg said David went to the right side of the bed, and Birdwell, armed with a pickax handle, allegedly went to the left side.

  David earlier had said, “We argued for a couple seconds over who was gonna go first.”

  After the recitation of facts, David told the judge he was satisfied with his lawyers. Worth, who served in the Battle of the Bulge and the Korean War, said he had told David about his military service in case he wanted to object to his representation.

  Referring to the neo-Nazi tattoos the brothers wore, Worth said, “I explained to David that I used to kill people who wore that emblem.”

  Worth paused, and tears came to his eyes. He said David was wearing an arm band with a swastika during that meeting in the jail.

  Before the hearing ended, David was asked whether he wanted to say anything to family members sitting in the courtroom. He said no. Worth said David indicated he wanted the case over as quickly as possible. Two of Mrs. Freeman’s sisters and Dennis Freeman’s sister were in court.

  “Only you know totally what happened that night,” Brenner told David.

  He smiled faintly after turning away from the judge’s bench and shuffled with leg shackles from the courtroom.

  The prosecution and defense have different theories about why the murders occurred.

  “I think there was a problem he had with certain religious disciplines in the household,” Worth said.