Overview

• Marie Nejar, born in 1930 to a German mother and Ghanaian father, survived racial persecution as a Black child in Nazi Germany.
• She was removed from school in the early 1940s by Joseph Goebbels’ order to appear in Nazi propaganda films such as 'Quax der Bruchpilot.'
• Under the stage name Leila Negra, she rose to fame in postwar Germany, using schlager music to address racial inequality and Afro-German experiences.
• Nejar retired from entertainment in the early 1980s, dedicating her later years to a career in nursing in Hamburg.
• Her autobiography and interviews provided vital testimony, expanding awareness of Afro-German history beyond the narratives of postwar Black American GIs' children.