{"id":2788,"date":"2019-08-21T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2019-08-22T16:15:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T16:15:18","slug":"german-colonists-also-separated-children-from-their-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/german-colonists-also-separated-children-from-their-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"German Colonists also Separated Children from Their Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Germans also separated children from their parents. In a previously unknown collection at the National Archives of Namibia in Windhoek, I recently discovered documents that confirm colonial authorities used family separation as a means of domination in German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), Germany\u2019s first and only settlement colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A dispatch to the Omaruru District Commander, for instance, details the separation of Emma, an 8-year-old Herero girl, from her parents as they departed from the capital city of Windhoek. It concludes that \u201cshe ran after her parents since she belongs with her Omaruru family.\u201d Emma\u2019s fate remains a mystery to the present day.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Another collection\nexposes the bureaucratic extent of German settler-colonial practices in\nNamibia. In a folder of \u201cnative passports\u201d (Pa\u00dfmarken<\/em>), I found several lists of all \u201cemployed\nprisoners-of-war.\u201d These records include a person\u2019s name, age, \u201ctribal\u201d\naffiliation, and the last-known location of their parents. In most cases,\nofficials simply wrote \u201cdead\u201d (tot<\/em>) with no additional information. Several colonial\nadministrators remarked in documents that these efforts provided the imperial\ngovernment an \u201ceffective means of controlling the local\npopulations.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the arrival of\nGerman settlers in Namibia in 1884, colonial officials moved quickly to\ndisplace Africans from their traditional lands, first through negotiations and\nthe establishment of so-called \u201cprotection treaties,\u201d and later through force\nof arms. The most destructive effort began in 1904 when soldiers under the\ncommand of General Lothar von Trotha initiated the first genocide of the\ntwentieth century against the Herero and Nama, the largest and most powerful\ncommunities in the colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In what historians now refer to as his \u201cAnnihilation Order,\u201d Trotha decreed in October 1904 that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Herero are no longer German subjects [and] must now leave the country. If it refuses, I shall compel it do so with the [great cannon]. Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. Such are my words to the Herero people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Trotha\u2019s actions\nresulted in the murder of approximately 60-80% and 25-35% of the Herero and\nNama\u2019s pre-1904 populations, respectively. The German colonial government also\nrounded-up entire families and placed them in concentration camps (Konzentrationlager<\/em>), where thousands more died from exposure and inhumane treatment. In\n1908, German authorities relocated survivors to segregated \u201cnative\nreservations\u201d (Eingeborenenwerften<\/em>), required them carry \u201cnative passports,\u201d\nand forced them to rely on the colonial government for basic\ncommodities and supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Descendants of Herero\nand Nama victims continue to lobby Namibian and German political leaders for\nreparations and the return of their traditional homelands. Their appeals and\nlegal efforts, however, have thus far warranted them few victories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any serious\nhistorian recognizes the importance of historical context and the necessity for\nevaluating the past on its own terms. At a time when high-profile media\npersonalities invoke a skewed or blatantly false historical narrative to\njustify policy on a seemingly daily basis, I am wary of\narguments that clumsily rely on unnuanced comparisons.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But professional\nresponsibility does not abjure scholars the right to call attention to\npresent-day human rights crises, from those fleeing systematic violence in\nSyria to the reported atrocious conditions and treatment of people in detention\ncenters at the U.S. southern border. Academics in the humanities, in\nparticular, dedicate their careers to the collection, examination, and\ncomparison of diverse source materials in\nan effort to provide answers to\ncomplicated questions. Critical analysis, however, oftentimes\nleads to uncomfortable conclusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can no longer\ncomfort ourselves in a false logic that regards discriminatory practices\nagainst so-called \u201cstateless\u201d peoples as a unique aspect of German history or\nthe distant past. It is incumbent for each\nof us to\ncontinue to learn about the\nplight of the\nrightless so as to identify the\ndangerous potentials of\ntheir condition.\nHistory does not repeat itself, but a critical evaluation of past events can at\nleast provide us means to learn about the destructive capabilities of\nnationalism, racism, and collective fears of a so-called \u201cOther.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tenets of liberal democracy necessitate that we contemplate the lessons of history. A failure to do so imperils the standing of everyone, but most especially those who have nothing left except for what Hannah Arendt pointedly identifies as their \u201cabstract nakedness of being human.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Adam A. Blackler is an assistant professor of history at the University of Wyoming. His current book project, entitled Heathens, \u201cHottentots,\u201d and Heimat: Southwest Africa and the Boundaries of German Identity, 1842-1915, explores the transnational dimensions of German colonialism, race, and genocide in German Southwest Africa. He is presently co-editing After the Imperialist Imagination: A Quarter Century of Research on Global Germany and Its Legacies, an anthology on German interactions across the globe (Peter Lang, 2020). He will publish \u201cSettler-Colonialism and Its Eliminatory Repercussions in the Nineteenth Century\u201d in A Cultural History of Genocide: The Long Nineteenth Century (Bloomsbury, 2020).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collection citation:<\/strong>
Archives:
National Archives of Namibia (NAN) \u2013 Windhoek, Namibia

Collections:
Kaislerliches Bizirksamt Windhoek (BWI)
Zentralbureau des Kaiserlichen Gouvernements (ZBU)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germans also separated children from their parents. In a previously unknown collection at the National Archives of Namibia in Windhoek, I recently discovered documents that confirm colonial authorities used family separation as a means of domination in German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia), Germany\u2019s first and only settlement colony. A dispatch to the Omaruru District Commander, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2081,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48285,142],"tags":[248,66019,96804,74777],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eye-on-africa","category-news","tag-germany","tag-herero-genocide","tag-nama-genocide","tag-namibia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/holocaust-genocide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}