60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

colonialism and the holocaust – towards an archeology of genocide 117
To be sure, the crimes of the National Socialists cannot be traced back
monocausally to the tradition of European colonialism. The Nazi
ideology and policy were far too complex and eclectic for such a
straightforward reduction. Yet, in the sense of an archeology of the
idea of population economy and genocidal thinking, colonialism provided
important precedents. Even the murder of the Jews, which was
distinguished by the notion of eradicating a worldwide conspiracy,
would probably not have been thinkable and possible if the idea that
ethnicities can simply be wiped out had not already existed and had
not already been put into action. What is more, colonialism occupied
such a prominent position in this tradition of genocidal thought because
the ‘discovery’, conquest, development, and settlement of the
new world was positively connoted and enjoyed popular support. The
parallels with colonialism also help to explain why the expulsion and
resettlement of Jews and Slavs, and ultimately their murder, were not
perceived as breaking a taboo. At the very least, colonial history offered
the Nazi perpetrators the possibility of exculpating themselves
and obscuring the enormity of their own actions.