Majub bin Adam Mohamed Hussein, born in the colony of German East Africa, was just nine years old when he became a soldier in the German army during the First World War. After Germany’s defeat, he was denied his wages, prompting him, about a decade later, to set out for Hamburg to claim the money himself. In Nazi Germany, the colonial soldier ended up playing bit parts in German films. From 1933, as the German film industry turned into a propaganda machine, Mohamed Hussein – who now called himself Majub – found himself cast in roles such as Hans Albers’ servant, Heinz Rühmann’s lift boy and Zarah Leander’s chauffeur. His final appearance was in the Nazi propaganda film Carl Peters. In 1944, he was murdered in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
In her montage, Eva Knopf uses framing techniques and slow motion to literally reposition the overlooked extra at the centre of the film. At the same time, she reflects on how Majub staged himself as an Askari: »Almost all we know about Mohamed Hussein comes from the archives of the National Socialists, from documents kept by the Foreign Office and from his appearances in propaganda films. He has no surviving relatives, and there is nothing that reflects him in his own terms. If we show these archive images and documents, we risk repeating the degradations Mohamed Hussein experienced. If we don’t show them, he will be lost in the archives forever.«

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