Easter Eggs for Hitler
Unique wartime photograph shows that even in war, men did not lose their sense of humor and also reminds us that many black soldiers fought in the ranks of the U.S. Army.
African-Americans had a very contradictory position in the U.S. military – they fought against the race war waged by Nazi Germany, even though they faced racial segregation in their own army.
Black soldiers were not usually deployed directly into combat units – they served primarily in support and supply units. Segregation had partly objective causes – for example, a significant proportion of black soldiers did not have adequate education. The segregation was not formally abolished until President Harry S. Truman abolished it on 26 July 1948, but for many years informal segregation was still in place – black soldiers received their training separately, slept in separate dormitories, and the officers were overwhelmingly white.
