Genocide: - DIIS

“I believe that the nation as such must be annihilated…”
man offi cers after 1870 and infl uenced the military strategy of the German
General Staff. One of the warmest advocates of the stra-tegy of infl icting a
crushing defeat on the enemy was von Schlieffen, the head of the General
Staff in Berlin and notoriously a supporter of Trotha. Trotha himself had
taken part in the infl iction of crushing defeat at the Battle of Sedan. 44 The
Herero main force having gathered at Waterberg made it not only possible
to infl ict a crushing defeat, following Clausewitz’ theory to the letter, but
presented them with the opportunity of taking advantage of European
weapon technology in a confl ict in Africa where colonial wars as a rule
degenerated into guerilla warfare. With a crushing defeat in battle a very
nasty guerilla war on African terms could be prevented. 45
The objective of the German attack on the Herero at Waterberg would
appear to be a total destruction of their military capability. The German
forces attacked on August 11 from the south west, the south, the south east
and the east while two smaller forces were to prevent the Herero from getting
away in a northerly direction. 46
The Herero positions were placed in a semi-circle to the south of Waterberg
and within the semi-circle were thousands of women and children.
Because of this the German forces also went into battle against civilians.
These were the circumstances under which Trotha’s troops engaged in total
war and there is no doubt that German forces murdered men, women
and children, though Trotha had ostensibly forbidden his soldiers to fi re
on women and children. While men were liquidated in considerable numbers,
it would not appear to have been the intention to systematically murder
women and children. On the other hand the diaries written at the time
indicate that the German troops had been ordered to act without mercy
towards the Herero and to British offi cers Herero survivors related a story
of countless murders of women and children. 47 However before the battle
a camp was established to provide for 8,000 prisoners, a fi gure roughly
44 Walter Nuhn (1997), Sturm über Südwest. Bonn, p. 202; Heinrich Schnee (1920), Deutsches
Koloniallexikon, Band 3. Leipzig, p. 543-544.
45 Bayer (1909), p. 134.
46 Bridgman (1981), p. 122; Bayer (1909), p. 146-56.
47 Generalstabswerk (1906-08), p. 118; Gewald (1999), p. 171-175.
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