Premieres Monday, June 12, 2023 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
At the end of World War II, African American GIs were stationed in Germany as part of a policy to help rid the country of racism and oppression, despite the ironic reality of strict segregation back home. “Breath of Freedom" represents the largely untold story of Black soldiers during and after the war. Hundreds of thousands remained in Germany as part of the American Army of Occupation, and many found greater freedom there than they had back in the U.S., particularly the American South. Their experiences in Europe both during and after the war played an often-overlooked role in setting the stage for the 1960s civil rights movement.
Breath of Freedom preview
“I first went to Germany in January 1959. I had just finished my training in Columbus, Georgia at Ft. Benning. Columbus, Georgia, was still segregated. There was discrimination, there was racism. For me, a young lieutenant who couldn’t go off the post in Columbus but could go off the post anywhere in Germany, it was a breath of freedom,” former Secretary of State and U.S. Army General (Ret.) Colin Powell recalled in a featured interview for the program.
Narrated by Cuba Gooding, Jr., this documentary features interviews with General Colin Powell as well as U.S. Representative John Lewis of Georgia; Charles Evers, a World War II veteran, civil rights activist and brother of Medgar Evers, whose 1963 murder was a catalyst for the civil rights movement; Leon Bass, who helped build a bridge that allowed reinforcements and supplies to reach embattled Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge; Dr. Roscoe Brown, a Tuskegee Airmen who shot down an Me-262 jet fighter; John Hendricks, a D-Day veteran who became a famous jazz musician; Judge Charles Johnson; Theodor Michael, a German film maker and writer of African descent who served as a translator in post-war Germany; and more.
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Congressman John Lewis in 2013 at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Congressman John Lewis in 2013 at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Elvira Rypacek is a brown baby, who often faced rejection by fellow Germans. For many decades her white mother did not want Elvira to know anything about her African American father. In "Breath Of Freedom" she finally tracks him down and they meet each other for the first time.
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In "Breath Of Freedom," Elvira Rypacek meets her father Ross Walker for the first time.
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Dr. Leon Bass was stationed in England and Germany during the war. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was one of the liberators of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Selma march. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Selma March. "Breath of Freedom" film
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Roscoe Brown was one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and legendary fighter pilots. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Roscoe Brown was one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and legendary fighter pilots. "Breath Of Freedom" film
Broadview TV, GMBH
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"Breath Of Freedom" interviews Charles Evers, veteran and brother of slain Civil Rights icon Medgar Evers.
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Pulitzer Prize Winner and historian David Brion Davis, who was an 18-year-old member of the security police in the occupying army, remembers how racism became a focal point in the ideological conflict with the Soviet Union. He recalls the very fact that the U.S., supposedly representing democracy, having a segregated army was a major part of the Russian propaganda.
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Joseph Hairston, an officer who served with an artillery regiment in Italy, and went on to become the army‘s first black helicopter pilot. In the 1960s, he was an organizer in the Civil Rights Movement.
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The future satirist Dieter Hildebrandt welcomed the African American GIs as a young prisoner of war as liberators from dictatorship. Like for many other Germans back then, for Hildebrandt the US army was the only source of employment. He earned his money as a stock clerk in a U.S. army store.
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Jon Hendricks was one of the African American GIs who took Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Later he would go on to become a well-known jazz musician and member of the legendary vocal trio, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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"Breath Of Freedom" is the largely untold story of the 1 million-plus African Americans who fought to overthrow the Nazi regime in World War II, as well as for their own personal freedom.
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Milton Johnson, a descendent of sharecroppers, joined the army for the opportunity to start a new life. While in Germany Milton met Charlotte, the woman who would become his wife. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Walter Patrice was the first African American from his hometown of Poughkeepsie, NY to be commissioned as an officer. He was drafted in 1943, and then went to Great Britain, France, Belgium and Germany leading a Pioneer Battalion. After his return from Germany, he became active in the NAACP.
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Harold Linton was stationed at Tempelhof in Berlin in 1960. He experienced the Berlin airlift and the construction of the Berlin Wall. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Ingrid experienced as a child the air-raids on the German capital. It was love at first sight when Ingrid met a young, handsome African American GI, Harold Linton. In a divided Berlin, their love story faced a huge challenge.
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Harold and Ingrid Linton. "Breath Of Freedom" film
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Also featured are contemporary interviews with African Americans and Germans who experienced the war and post-war Germany, as well as period film footage of World War II and of segregated facilities in America. Some events are also dramatized using animations drawn in a style reminiscent of graphic novels or manga, presenting a fresh way to illustrate specific moments and events described in the program for which no visual record exists, including the recounted memory of a German girl approaching a Black soldier and rubbing his hand to see if the color will rub off.
Watch On Your Schedule: This film is available on demand with KPBS Passport is a member benefit that unlocks exclusive shows and extra content on the PBS App.
Credits: Broadview TV, GMBH and distributed to the public television system by American Public Television.
