Within the hour, I was hugging my old buddy, who not only had risen from the dead, but who had changed from a skinny wisp of a man to a tubby grandfather type. Since that fateful reunion, Fred and Giesela, at the time an insurance executive, have lived in retirement in their cozy apartment in Hamburg, where I have been a regular dropper-in whenever my addiction for an occasional whiff of foggy Hamburg air has brought me to the city of my birth. In the fall of 1989 I accomplished what until then had been considered an impossible feat—I succeeded in persuading Fred to overcome his fear of flying and to come with Giesela to spend time with my family and me in Chicago and with Yankee Werner and his wife in California. The two had the time of their lives and have promised us to come back for an encore.
Another member of my old inner circle who literally landed on his feet is Ah-Yue Hon Lou, my former partner in the show-biz act the Three Ah-Yue Hon Lous. Following the disbanding of our group, Yue kept up his tap-dance act as a solo artist, but eventually branched out into acting in major films that call for Asian characters—Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, et cetera. Widowed, remarried, and the father of two grown sons and a daughter, Yue now lives with his wife, Giesel, in Hamburg’s suburb of Blankenese, where I visit them whenever I happen to be in the neighborhood.
Of the Morell clan, headed by Nazi Blockleiter Wilhelm Morell, only my friend and former classmate Karl is still around. To my big surprise, I found him living by himself in retirement in an apartment only a few blocks from the neighborhood where we grew up. He told me that after he had been reported missing in action, he returned belatedly from a Soviet POW camp one night half-starved and in rags only to find his parents and brothers reveling at a party at their home. “I had always pictured them grieving for me,” he recalled, “and instead I found them living it up.” At least Karl was spared the indignity suffered by many German POWs who, upon their return home, found that their wives had replaced them with an English or American soldier—true to the saying, “To the winner go the spoils.”
Karl’s disappointing homecoming, he explained, alienated him forever from his family, especially his father, whose Nazi politics, he said, had always disgusted him. Shortly after Karl’s return from the POW camp, his brother Gerd, a talented drummer with his own band, slumped over his drums and died of a heart attack during a gig at a Baltic Sea resort. Following Gerd’s death, Herr Morell, then Frau Morell died. Hans, the oldest of the Morell boys, survived combat in the Soviet Union. He died only a few years ago after ailing for several years, according to Karl.
A depressingly long list of members of my former circle of relatives, friends, and acquaintances who did not survive include my former classmate Fiffi Peters, the waiter at the Ratskeller, who, I have learned only recently, was killed in action, as was our former teacher Herr Henry Herbst. One of the most tragic fates brought to my attention is that of my first great love, Gretchen Jahn. After appearing as a guest on the popular Hamburg television program Die Schaubude in 1976, I was deluged with telephone calls from people who had recognized me, including a woman who identified herself as Gretchen’s cousin. Through her I learned that Gretchen, her mother, and her brother had planned to emigrate to the United States, but that Gretchen had to remain in Germany because she had contracted tuberculosis and was refused a U.S. immigrant visa. Left to her own devices, she made a living as a barmaid in a Hamburg nightclub. A few years following our last meeting in St. Pauli in 1946, she died destitute and alone.
I never heard what happened to the two major villains in my life, Kätnerkamp principal Wriede and teacher Dutke. Judging by their ages, I must assume that one way or another, they have moved on to their just rewards, which I hope are in keeping with the sadistic pleasure they derived from tormenting me.
It is of considerable comfort to me to know that my mother, who followed me to the United States in 1952, finally lived a happily married life before she died in 1986 at the ripe old age of eighty-three. In Mileta Nikodijevic, a hardworking Serb who had been freed by the Allies from a German POW camp, she found the love and companionship she so richly deserved. The two lived an idyllic life in their comfortable, friend-filled (and, Mutti used to stress, “all paid for”) home in a suburb of Chicago. It was exactly the kind of home with a small vegetable garden she and I used to dream about in Germany, when home ownership was totally beyond our reach. Their happiness lasted until, on the eve of their fifth wedding anniversary, Mileta succumbed to a heart attack.
There was no better way I could have repaid my mother for all she had done for me than to “make something of myself” and to present her with two grandsons, Steve Gordon and Hans Jürgen, Jr., who likewise have made something of themselves. Following Steve’s graduation from Harvard Medical School and the enrollment of Hans at the University of Michigan Law School, nothing gave her more pleasure than to brag about “my grandson, the doctor, and my other grandson, the soon-to-be lawyer.” As she always used to say, “Ende gut, alles gut.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Not unlike raising a child, it usually takes a “village” of loyal relatives, friends, and professionals to “raise” a book. Destined to Witness is no exception. Without the help of a small but dedicated cadre of supporters, it would still be a pipe dream in the remote recesses of my mind.
Much of the credit for helping me turn an idea into a book goes to my wife and best friend, Katharine, who throughout the various stages of the manuscript put up with the erratic behavior of a genius at work while assuming the multiple duties of inspiring muse, sounding board, gourmet cook, chauffeur, critic, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. On numerous occasions, she literally saved the day by matching wits with my Power PC, bending the disgustingly obstinate gadget to her will whenever it went on strike or otherwise refused to cooperate with me.
Similar praise goes to my two sons, Steve G. Massaquoi, M.D., Ph. D., assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Atty. Hans J. Massaquoi Jr., partner at the law firm Lewis and Munday in Detroit. In spite of their taxing professional careers, they took the time to become deeply involved with the project, from reading and critiquing the text to (in the case of Atty. Hans Jr.) helping me with free (I think) legal advice in the preparation of contracts with publishers and agents and the obtaining of copyrights.
Equally deserving of my gratitude are my wife’s brother and sister, Numa Rousseve of White Plains, New York, and Elaine Thompson of San Jose, California, and my friend Ed Morris, professor of television at Columbia College in Chicago. The three separately took on the reading and editing of the manuscript as a labor of love and offered many constructive comments.
Even if belatedly, I must give major praise to my late friend Alex Haley. Just a few months before his untimely death on February 10, 1992, he returned my unfinished manuscript, which he had kindly agreed to critique, with many invaluable suggestions.
I could not write this page of acknowledgments without mentioning my lifetime friend and established author of bestselling books, Ralph Giordano of Cologne, Germany, who started the ball rolling, so to speak. After years of encouraging me to write my memoir, he called me one day to tell me that he had meetings scheduled with important German editors and that if I would rush him a copy of my in-progress manuscript, he would see to it that the right people would see it. Shortly after I mailed my manuscript to Ralph, German publishers’ interest in my book was kindled and Destined to Witness was on its way.
I also would like to take this opportunity to thank Prof. Raymond J. Smyke of Morges, Switzerland, who is preparing a biography of my grandfather, the Hon. Momolu Massaquoi (1870-1938), for providing me with some valuable information about him.
The person who deserves credit for introducing me to the arcane and bewildering world of book-publishing and who, in the process, convinced me that the writing of a book is the easy part is my literary agent Sarah Lazin of Sarah Lazin Books in New York City. Sarah has been tireless in representing my interest in Europe as well as the United St
ates. I am deeply grateful to Claire Wachtel, executive editor at William Morrow, for having the faith in my work to publish it. I am also indebted to Greg Villepique, copy editor, who, with a keen eye and deft touch, put the finishing touches on my manuscript.
Last but not least, I must mention here my two faithful companions, (Don) Quixote and Sancho (Panza), our two Welsh terriers, who patiently kept me company during the many lonesome vigils that are the lot of anyone who embarks on the adventure of writing a book.
About the Author
HANS J. MASSAQUOI emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, entered a career in journalism, and became managing editor of Ebony magazine. He lives in New Orleans.
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PRAISE FOR
Destined to Witness
“An incredible tale…. Exceptional…. It is reviving and heartening to learn of this intrepid black child and young man who through a combination of guts, smarts, and a really good mother, manages to waltz through the darkest abyss of the twentieth century and come out whistling.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“His story is truly a fascinating one, and in this absorbing memoir, he tells it with vividness and considerable verve. Written with clarity, directiveness, and sharply evocative detail, Mr. Massaquoi’s book offers a unique perspective on a period of organized madness, destruction, and turmoil that continues to demand our attention and evade our comprehension.”
—Washington Times
“A revelation…a modest account of a remarkable life…filled with emotional intensity, humor and frankness…. Destined to Witness [is] a cry against racism, a survivor’s tale, a wartime adventure, a coming-of-age story, and a powerful tribute to a mother’s love, and her son’s willingness to make something of his life.”
—New Orleans Times-Picayune
“Destined to Witness examines a roller coaster of racism from different cultures and continents. Massaquoi concludes that ‘true human decency is…simply a matter of the human heart.’”
—New York Times Book Review
“Filled with courage, feeling, and intelligence…. Intriguing.”
—Jet
“To say that Hans Massaquoi had it all, is not to say only that he had black skin, in Germany, where and when white skin and Aryan blood were revered, nor to suggest that he lived without money when only money could have saved him and his mother from the degradation of racial hate and deprivation. Massaquoi, indeed, did have it all: keen observation, an important intelligence, and a remarkable memory. Here is a story rarely lived and even more rarely told. We need this book for a balanced picture of the Holocaust, which was not only a ‘Jewish thing.’ Hate is hate, it knows no color, and knows all colors all too well.”
—Maya Angelou
“A unique addition to life under the Third Reich…thoughtful and well-written.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Massaquoi’s background and experiences provide incredible context to this personal story of overcoming racism.”
—Booklist
“A nuanced, startling memoir…Massaquoi’s unique, pathos-filled childhood in extremis is rendered superlatively, as is his portrait of a prewar Germany giddily embarked on its own destruction.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Copyright
DESTINED TO WITNESS. Copyright © 1999 by Hans J. Massaquoi. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2007 ISBN: 9780061856600
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