Background and career
Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi (January 19, 1926 – January 19, 2013) was a German-Americo-Liberian journalist and author. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a German mother and a Liberian father of Vai ethnicity, the grandson of Momolu Massaquoi, the consul general of Liberia in Germany at the time.
His autobiography Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany was published in 1999 (in English). Its German translation was published the same year, as Neger, Neger, Schornsteinfeger: Meine Kindheit in Deutschland. The title references a racist rhyme with which schoolboys taunted him in 1932. The German version was adapted as a film Destined to Witness (2006). He later published a second autobiography, only in German: Hänschen klein, ging allein: Mein Weg in die Neue Welt (2004).
.jpg?width=480)
.jpg?width=480)
.jpg?width=480)
.jpg?width=480)