60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

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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.
colonialism and the holocaust – towards an archeology of genocide 97 The problem of the connection between colonialism and National Socialism is highly political and emotional, for the historical-academic question of the singularity of the Holocaust and the relationship of Nazi crimes to previous or subsequent collective mass murders has long since also taken on a philosophical dimension and is intrinsically linked to identity politics (see Finkelstein 2000, Novick 1999, Levy and Sznaider 2001). Whereas supporters of the singularity thesis regard comparisons as a blasphemous mockery of the Holocaust’s victims, its opponents – in analogy to the accusation of Holocaust denial – argue that the singularity thesis amounts to the denial of all other genocides (see Friedberg 2000, Stannard 1996, Moses 2002, Zimmerer 2004b). The question of colonial genocide is disturbing, in part because it increases the number of mass murders regarded as genocide, and in part, too, because it calls into question the Europeanisation of the globe as a modernising project. Where the descendants of perpetrators still comprise the majority or large proportion of the population and control political life and public discourse, recognition of colonial genocides is even more diffi cult, as it undermines the image of the past on which national identity is built. Australian conservatives, for example, have diffi culties recognising the genocide of the Aborigines (Moses 2001). Former president Bill Clinton can apologise in Africa for the crimes of slavery – his gesture took place outside the USA – while public commemoration of the destruction of the American Indians continues to be denied (see Stannard 1996, Churchill 1997). Similarly, former German federal president Roman Herzog refused to apologise for the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples during his visit to Namibia in 1998. 5 Groups of victims and their representatives insist on acknowledging genocide because it is regarded as absolutely the worst human crime. The connection to the Holocaust, with the implicit moral equivalence, is indicated in titles such as The American Holocaust (Stannard 1992), American Indian Holocaust (Thornton 1987), The Herero Holocaust (Silvester et al. 2001), and The Black Holocaust (Black History Resource Working Group 1997, Mordekhai 1993). 6 Yet, the infl ationary use of the terms ‘genocide’ and ‘Holocaust’ creates problems for the scholarly debate about the his- 5 ‘Kein Pardon für Herero-Morde’, Die tageszeitung, 5 March 1998. See also ‘Herzog lobt die Beziehungen zu Namibia’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 5 March 1998; ‘Herzog will Deutsch in Namibia stärken’, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 7 March 1998. 6 There are now also museums and societies for the memory of the Black Holocaust, such as America’s Black Holocaust Museum and the Black Holocaust Society in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. See www.blackwallstreet.freeservers.com.
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no. 50 | december 2008 Revisiting t
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Revisiting the heart of darkness -
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Acknowledgements The larger part of
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Dennis Brutus, born 1924 in then Rh
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8 development dialogue december 200
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In short, both the understanding of
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Behind most mass violence lurk econ
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ehind most mass violence lurk econo
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Is there a south perspective on gen
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is there a south perspective on gen
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The Voksenåsen Statement Genocides
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This Development Dialogue is publis
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60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

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