Original Tuskegee Airmen Lt Col Alexander Jefferson was one of 32 Tuskegee Airmen from the 332nd Fighter Group to be shot down defending a country that considered them to be second-class citizens. He recounts his experience as a prisoner of war in a German prison camp in his 2005 book, “Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free,” available in our webstore.
Jefferson’s account is perhaps the only published perspective from an African-American in a German prison camp. On August 12, 1944 while on a strafing run over southern France, his nineteenth and final mission, Jefferson was shot down and became a “guest of the Third Reich” as he puts it. It is a harrowing tale that caught the ear of filmmakers Mike and Sheldon Rott, producers of “Luft Gangsters: Memoirs of a Second Class Hero.”
“Luft” is the German word for air. During the war, German’s depicted American fighter pilots as gangsters. Unsavory racist depictions even figured in to German propaganda. “We were simply doing our job,” says Jefferson.
View the trailer for this remarkable documentary and order a copy of the film at www.luftgangstermovie.com. Recently, the film’s producers surprised Jefferson with news that “Luft Gangsters” won the Audience Choice Award at the Albuquerque Film and Music Experience. Congratulations Lt Col Jefferson for your fine work on this extraordinary film, and again thank you for your service to our country. RISE ABOVE!
The CAF Red Tail Squadron is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to educating audiences across the country about the history and legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first black military pilots and their support personnel. Learn more at www.redtail.org.
