60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

96 development dialogue december 2008 – revisiting the heart of darkness
vestigation of the colonial enthusiasm of the National Socialists has
been restricted prematurely to the reacquisition of the German empire
in Africa. And so the literature concludes erroneously that Hitler
was not particularly interested in a colonial empire, missing the point
that the geographical sphere for a German colonial empire had long
since changed from the south to the east (see Hildebrand 1969, Esche
1989). 2 This move is evident in the meaning of the slogan ‘Volk
without space’ (Volk ohne Raum) (Grimm 1926). Hans Grimm’s novel
of that name was set in South Africa, but the term was later used for
German attempts to gain territory in Eastern Europe.
Although Hannah Arendt argued as long as half a century ago that
imperialism was the precursor to National Socialism (see Arendt
1951), this idea was not pursued. Apart from the criticism of her conception
of totalitarianism, the reason for this neglect presumably also
lies in the rapidly expanding scholarship on colonialism and National
Socialism, each of which now fi lls whole libraries. As a result, our
understanding of both the Third Reich and colonialism has changed
so enormously that comparison is necessary on an entirely new basis.
Furthermore, experts on colonialism have tended not to be interested
in Nazi crimes, preferring to leave them to historians of Germany and
Eastern Europe, while researchers on National Socialism – used to
dealing with large armies, millions of victims and perpetrators, and
warfare between modern states – seem not to take seriously the colonial
conquest of the world. Although there are plenty of studies that
follow the Nazi policy of expansion back to the German Empire – as
exemplifi ed by the Fischer controversy on German aims in the First
World War (see Fischer 1986, 1967, and 1975) 3 – or that categorise the
Empire and German colonialism as fascist or proto-fascist (Schmidt-
Egner 1975), as yet no one has attempted systematically to portray
Nazi expansion and occupation policy in the East as colonial. 4
2 For an exaggerated view of Africa’s importance to Hitler, see Kum’a N’dumbe III (1993).
3 On the controversy surrounding his thesis see Moses (1975).
4 Mark Mazower’s plea for a close examination of the colonial roots of Nazi policy
seems to have gone unheard (see Mazower 1995: 5-8). In his Dark Continent: Europe’s
Twentieth Century, Mazower (1998) suggests that European outrage over the Nazis was
so great because they treated Europeans like aboriginals, but he does not discuss the
connection systematically. The best-known consideration of the connection between
colonial mass murders and the Holocaust is that by Sven Lindqvist (1997). As his
understanding of European colonialism and of the German policy of annihilation in
the East does not go beyond simplistic descriptions, the questions he poses are more
signifi cant than his answers. Much the same applies to Ward Churchill, who speaks of
the National Socialists imitating the colonial conquest of North America. Richard L.
Rubinstein (2000) has also touched on the idea.