DDR Police Namibia UN Patch 1989

[Klaus1989]

The article also says that there are about 25,000 Germans living in Namibia, mostly farmers. Some of these Germans provided them lodging, schooling and training.

http://tagebucheinesversagers.blog.de/?tag=namibia

Of course, as I am sure you are familiar, Namibia was the German colony of Deutsch Südwestafrika from 1884-1915 and had largest number of German settlers. Today the German population even has its own newspaper - found the link one time. Wonder how they got along with VOPO...

Now for uniform question, did VOPO wear short sleeve shirt order when actually in Namibia? I have feeling they did not wear Feldanzug of any type but could be wrong.

Klaus

[ehrentitle]

Klaus - Sorry I made the assumption that folks had read my earlier post in this thread.

It just gets better, Namibia was a former German Colony, South West Africa (Süd-West Afrika) up until WWI. The rebel group in Namibia, the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), was a Marxist group supported by the Soviet Union and East Germany in the 70s and 80s.

[Klaus1989]

Kevin:
Sorry the thread is so long that I have not read the earlier posts in couple months when first posted! Things get repeated - German colonies are on of my other areas of interest so I could not resist posting that info!

Klaus

[ehrentitle]

Here is a very rough computer translation of another article on this topic from Jungle World 2000 http://www.nadir.org/nadir/periodika...000/19/20b.htm

The Ossis of Namibia with the training of foreigners left the GDR in the whole world traces. By Hans George Schleicher

Tuesday is Ossi club in Windhoek in the South West African Namibia. There is above all young people, who meet in the Bismarck route, in the house of the Namibian German foundation, nearby the city centre. The "black Germans", as the young people are called here, have to tell themselves it much: over their work, over friends, in addition, again and again over "old times" in the GDR.

The young people, black Namibier, speak German with one another - they are "GDR children". Most of them spent the their childhood and early youth in the GDR. In 1978 after a massacre by South African troops in the SWAPO refugee camp Cassinga in south Angola, SWAPO asked the GDR government to accept Namibian children threatened by the war.

First 80 children came. Among them were orphans and children of SWAPO fighters. Up to 1989, 430 children came to the GDR. They lived in Stassfurt and a children's home in the Bellin. Apart from security they found an education and a real childhood - faraway from the war of liberation. The GDR and the SWAPO thought their stay would be limited. When at the beginning of the eighties there did not appear to be an end to the conflict as expected, they were sent to GDR schools and also took up vocational training or study. Integration into GDR society had not been intended neither by the GDR government nor by the SWAPO. The stay in GDR of these children was financed by solidarity funds.

In August 1990, the children were rushed back to Namibia without any preparation, most of them had no memory of their native country. The culture shock was enormous, in particular for the older ones, which had lived up to eleven years in the GDR. All had had to break their schooling off abruptly. The children were again caught between political fronts in 1989/90. The creation of a unlimited right to residence for it at least up to the end of the education belonged to the many incomplete homework of the government de Maizière. The young people were shaped by their stay in the GDR.

Take for example the unusually self-confident waitress in a restaurant of the Namibian capital. She received an order from a customer in English and later she passes it on in her best German to her colleague. Both know each other from Stassfurt. And the young woman at the reception desk of a Windhoeker office building speaks with her colleagues in English. She writes their personal work notes German.

The fact that the "black Germans" are today accepted within community the ethnic Germans Namibier is them into the lap does not please. When they were taken up 1990 to German schools, they were the first black ones in Namibia, to which the privilege came to be allowed to visit a higher school. That did not go off without resistances of their white schoolmates. Particularly since the "black Germans" accepted this privilege as a matter of course and did not consider it necessary to give reverent thank yous for their support. Both the Namibian authorities and German organizations recognized fast that these children returned from the GDR had to be helped.

Some German farmers in Namibia felt it at that time as an act of the mercy to invite a German-speaking black child to holidays stays with their families. But the children shaped in a European culture did not correspond with the idea of of a needy child in a traditional society, in which one has to respect age and possession. Instead of obedience, the farmers saw self-confident children, who did not shrink from offering their own opinions.

The "black Germans" kept contact among themselves over all the years, since the experiences, which made them in the old and nevertheless so new homeland, were the same. In 1995 the club "the Ossis" was created it with the support of Namibian German donations. The "Ossis" is proud on its group identity. The co-operation, in addition, the favorable political climate in Namibia opposite black ones, which break with traditional suppression, helped most GDR kids to maintain ground.

Hilda e.g. is a lady journalist with the The Namibian, Ipumbu studied at the university, Nangula and Cliffy works at the Namibian broadcast, Taapanga in a large forwarding business, Utoni is a guide. Hardly otherwise in Namibia there is a group of so well trained blacks, which could penetrate into "occupations of white". Many of the young people strove for further training in Germany. About thirty succeeded in coming back to the Federal Republic: to study, for professional training, for practical courses or on outer-pair-places. The culture shock remained likewise not saved for the few, which did not lose their parents in the war. The Namibierin Fenni Nauyala accepted 1990 two children, who had lived in the GDR, again to its family. Their cultural identity, its interests and even the Essgewohnheiten are shaped by the years in Bellin and/or Stassfurt. The traditions of the rural Ovambolandes, the homeland of their parents are nearly as strange to them, as the foreign guest.

[ehrentitle]

Here is a book written in German in 1994 on the topic of GDR Kids. Shows a photos of a group of them: http://www.k-hess-verlag.de/ddr-kids.htm

[Ralph P]

Kevin and Klaus - thanks for the update material interesting read...

[NKOMO]

Cassinga was an extremely bad defeat for SWAPO and their allies. SWAPO lost over 600 people (men, women and children) that day. The South Africans only lost 4. There is a brief article about it if you'd like to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cassinga
With 600 losses, no wonder the East Germans were asked to help out with the orphaned children!

[ehrentitle]

NKOMO - Thanks for the link to this fascinating article. It indicates that East German advisers were captured at Cassinga.

[NKOMO]

NKOMO - Thanks for the link to this fascinating article. It indicates that East German advisers were captured at Cassinga.

I have studied this operation in depth. I have a flag that was captured by 32 Battalion on this operation and presented to the South African commander in charge of Operation Reindeer. It is from the Angolan Women's Organization, who had a prescence in these camps. If the flag's condition is any indication of how fierce the battle was that day, then it was beyond horrific. The flag is literally in tatters. Much battle damage.

[NKOMO]

For anyone wanting to see the flag I mentioned months earlier, check out these two links:
http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o.../africa002.jpg

http://i341.photobucket.com/albums/o.../africa004.jpg

[Ralph P]

Thanks for the update about your flag that has some history behind it. Question for you, did you write the wiki article about the battle? And have you found any additional information Of East Germany's involvement?

[NKOMO]

I wish I could say that I wrote the Cassinga article on Wiki, but I didn't. I will say that whoever did wrote an excellent article. Very informative and a good general article on that battle.

As far as anything new about the East German advisors, I have found very little new information. I have contacted the Stasi Museum and they were unable to offer anything. They were supposed to forward my name and email to a couple of people, but I never heard anything from them. I am constantly scanning books for information, but no one can seem to offer anything new. Mainly what I am reading and hearing is that the EG advisors were mainly there for support and signal intelligence. I have seen little evidence to indicate that they were involved in combat operations, but then again most of their missions would have been classified and information sparse to begin with.

That being said, the MfS was extremely busy in the third world and helped train many intelligence organizations. They worked in conjuction with the Cuban DGI and the Soviet KGB. From what I understand, the MfS were masters at their trade and extremely brutal. They trained or advised the following intelligence organizations: the Mozambique S.N.A.S.P., the Angolan DISA, the Nicaraguan DGSE, the Ethiopian CRID, the Cuban DGI, etc.

Any information on black operations done by any of the former Warsaw Pact nations is sparse. The records are still sealed in most cases and I doubt seriously that they will ever see the light of day.
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