Forty years before the war of annihilation in eastern Europe and the Holocaust, German colonial troops in German South West Africa perpetrated the first genocide of the twentieth century. From Windhoek to Auschwitz? interrogates the relationship between colonialism and National Socialism, using genocide, the 'racial state', and systems of forced labour as points of departure for comparative observation. The book is an indispensable document in the intensive debate among German and international scholars about the postcolonial expansion of German history, and it offers a fresh look at the history of colonialism and also the 'Third Reich'.

Forty years prior to the Holocaust, German colonial troops in German Southwest Africa (known today as Namibia) murdered up to 80000 Herero and 20000 Nama, and caused many more thousands to perish in the desert and as slave laborers in concentration camps. During the last decade, a fierce debate has emerged regarding the Herero and Nama genocide and its meaning within German 20th-century history, particularly the extent to which it can be seen as a precursor to Nazi crimes. This book examines the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust, and situates Nazi crimes firmly within the global history of mass violence. Zimmerer documents the development of an argument that has changed the way we view the Holocaust by pointing to continuities and parallels, thereby offering a fresh, postcolonial perspective on the Third Reich.

Most cultural and legal codes agree that the intentional killing of civilians, whether in peacetime or war, is prohibited. Yet despite this fact, the deliberate killing of large numbers of civilians remains a persistent feature of global political life.

Violence against Jews, Roma, and other persecuted minorities in the multiethnic borderlands of Eastern, Central, and Southeastern Europe. Includes: Anca Filipovici: The Rise of Antisemitism in the Multiethnic Borderland of Bukovina: Student Movements and Interethnic Clashes at the University of Cernăuți (1922-1938) Doris Bergen: Saving Christianity, Killing Jews: German Religious Campaigns and the Holocaust in the Borderlands Linda Margittai: Hungarians, Germans, Serbs, and Jews in Wartime Vojvodina: Patterns of Attitudes and Behaviors towards Jews in a Multiethnic Border Region of Hungary Goran Miljan: The "Ideal Nation-State" for the "Ideal New Croat": The Ustasha Youth and the Aryanization of Jewish Property in the Independent State of Croatia, 1941-1945 Svetlana Suveica: Appropriation of Jewish Property in the Borderlands: Local Public Employees in Bessarabia during the Romanian Holocaust Anna Wylegała: Listening to Contradictory Voices: Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian Narratives on Jewish Property in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Galicia Miriam Schulz: Gornisht oyser verter?!: The Yiddish Language as a Mirror of Interethnic Relations and Dynamics of Violence in German-Occupied Eastern Europe

The Nazi Party and the German Communities Abroad examines the German Nazi Party’s actions around the world in the 1930s and 1940s. The book particularly focuses in on the formation and development of the Auslandsorganization der NSDAP (AO) (Nazi Party/Foreign Organization), the party branch charged with the task of connecting with foreign fascist movements and, especially with Germans living abroad. The authors follow the creation of the AO and its development in Germany, along with its actions throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, before finally focusing on Latin America. The Latin American case is then presented in both general and particular aspects, including countries such as Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. The study draws on many primary sources and is extensively referenced; an index with 700 references related to the action of Nazism in the American continent is presented, including the American and Canadian cases. This volume will be of interest to researchers of the history of Nazism and Latin America.

This book examines Nazi Germany's expansion, population management and establishment of a racially stratified society within the Reichsgaue (Reich Districts) of Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia in annexed Poland (1939-1945) through a colonial lens. The topic of the Holocaust has thus far dominated the scholarly debate on the relevance of colonialism for our understanding of the Nazi regime. However, as opposed to solely concentrating on violence to investigate whether the Holocaust can be located within wider colonial frameworks, Rachel O'Sullivan utilizes a broader approach by investigating other aspects, such as discourses and fantasies related to expansion, settlement, 'civilising missions' and Germanisation, which were also intrinsic to Nazi Germany's rule in Poland. The resettlement of the ethnic Germans-individuals of German descent who lived in Eastern Europe until the outbreak of the Second World War-forms a main focal point for this study's analysis and investigation of colonial comparisons. The ethnic German resettlement in the Reichsgaue laid the foundations for the establishment and enforcement of German society and culture, while simultaneously intensifying the efforts to control Poles and remove Jews. Through this case study, O'Sullivan explores Nazi Germany's dual usage of inclusionary policies, which attempted to culturally and linguistically integrate ethnic Germans and certain Poles into German society, and the contrasting exclusionary policies, which sought to rid annexed Poland of 'undesirable' population groups through segregation, deportation and murder. The book compares these policies - and the tactics used to implement them - to colonial and settler colonial methods of assimilation, subjugation and violence.