Prologue
Prologue
African Americans in the German Democratic Republic
In this prologue, the author, a white American GI who received political asylum in the early 1950s, reflects on his personal memoir on the freedom quest of black GIs who sought refuge or asylum in the German Democratic Republic. He looks at how some of the black GIs he knew became romantically involved with German women, incurring the wrath of the American military bureaucracy in the process. The author also asks why the Soviet authorities, in search of a location for deserters from western armies, chose the city of Bautzen for what was to become a small but unusual experiment in internationalism affecting, among others, a handful of African Americans. In addition, he comments on the Germans’ establishment of a clubhouse and a school for foreigners in the country.
Keywords: freedom, GIs, refuge, asylum, German Democratic Republic, military bureaucracy, Bautzen, internationalism, African Americans, foreigners
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