Hitler's African Victims: The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers in 1940

When it invaded France in 1940, the German army massacred thousands of black POWs belonging to units drafted in France's colonies. The book for the first time documents these war crimes on the basis of extensive research in French and German archives. A massive Nazi propaganda offensive approved by Hitler, reviving traditional images of black soldiers as mutilating savages, formed the background for the massacres. Drawing from approaches for explaining genocides and war crimes, the book advances a nuanced interpretation of the motivation for these massacres.