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They came to Germany to liberate the country from racism and educate it towards democracy.
And they did so in an army that continued to consistently practice racial segregation.
A war on two fronts and a breath of freedom that would change their lives forever.
"Breath of Freedom" tells the story of African-American GIs who were stationed in Germany after the end of the Second World War.
Accepted by the German people as representatives of a victorious power, many black GIs experienced for the first time a society without the segregation of the races that was enshrined in law in the southern states and practiced throughout America.
This "Breath of Freedom", as Colin Powell called this twist of fate, was one of the sparks of the American civil rights movement.
But for the German population, too, the encounter with the African-American GIs marked a new beginning after the war, as they were the first to meet the Germans in a friendly and open-minded way again.
BROADVIEW TV accompanies former GIs, civil rights activists and prominent African-American contemporary witnesses such as Colin Powell and John Lewis on their journey down memory lane.
