How long does it take to read Destined to Witness?
Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
Hans J. Massaquoi
Destined to Witness by Hans J. Massaquoi takes about 8 hours 7 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 8 hours 7 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 1999. 443 pages, about 121,825 words.
17 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 13 hours 32 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 8 hours 7 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 5 minutes |
The page count is the median across 18 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
This is a story of the unexpected.In Destined to Witness, Hans Massaquoi has crafted a beautifully rendered memoir -- an astonishing true tale of how he came of age as a black child in Nazi Germany. The son of a prominent African and a German nurse, Hans remained behind with his mother when Hitler came to power, due to concerns about his fragile health, after his father returned to Liberia. Like other German boys, Hans went to school; like other German boys, he swiftly fell under the Fuhrer's spell. So he was crushed to learn that, as a black child, he was ineligible for the Hitler Youth. His path to a secondary education and an eventual profession was blocked. He now lived in fear that, at any moment, he might hear the Gestapo banging on the door -- or Allied bombs falling on his home. Ironic,, moving, and deeply human, Massaquoi's account of this lonely struggle for survival brims with courage and intelligence.
Subjects: Sociology, Blacks, Racism, Social conditions, Nonfiction, National socialism
