- Okahandja Concentration Camp
-
After the battle of Waterburg, in which the Schutztruppers of German South West Africa used machine guns and cannons to force the indigenous Herero into the Omaheke desert, then used Maxim machine guns to prevent the Herero from gaining access to water (or poisoned the water holes), the Herero who did not die in the desert were collected and placed into concentration camps such as Okahandja. This included men, women and children. Unfortunately, the collection process was not so peaceful, as the Herero were typically shot.
Contents
Bridging the Second and Third Reichs in German South West Africa
There was at least one German citizen who visited German South West Africa during the period between 1904 and 1908, as well as working closely with the Nazi Party in Germany (straddling the Second Reich and Third Reich): Eugen Fischer, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A). Fischer also worked closely for many years with his old friend Baron Ottmar von Verschuer, who was his successor at the KWI-A. It is indisputable that Eugen Fischer was fully apprised of the activities of the Nazis.[1][2][3][4][5]
Paul Rohrbach was the Settlements Commissioner in GSWA. Concerned with miscegenation, he is quoted as follows:
"In order to secure the peaceful White settlement against the bad, culturally inept and predatory native tribe, it is possible that its actual eradication may become necessary under certain conditions."[6]
Independent of what was happening in German South West Africa, in 1918 the Germans had invaded the Ukraine while people like Symon Petliura were also trying to establish an independent Ukraine. Rohrbach worked with Field Marshal Hermann von Eichhorn, commander of the German forces in the Ukraine, to install General Pavel Petrovitch Skoropadski as "Hetmann" of the Ukraine.[7]
During the Third Reich, German colonists from German East Africa were moved into Polish land "annexed" in 1939, displacing Poles (the indigenous population), Jews and Gypsies. This new settlement area was called the Reichsgau Wartheland; as the people in Poland and the Ukraine were considered inferior, they could thus be exterminated and replaced with Germans from the former African colonies and other places.
"... Hitler, Darré, and other Nazi ideologues played down overseas colonialism and concentrated instead on contiguous German settlements in Eastern Europe and especially Ukraine where the Aryan 'soldier-peasant' tilled the soil with a weapon at his side, ready to defend the farm from the 'Asian hordes.' As for the Ukranians whom the Nazis pejoratively branded 'Negroes,' Hitler remarked that the Germans would supply them 'with scarves, glass beads and everything that colonial people like.'"[8]
Also active both in Deutsch-Südwestafrika and in Nazi Germany were two members of a well-known family: Heinrich Ernst Göring and Hermann Göring.
Franz Ritter von Epp also straddled both the Second Reich and the Third Reich. He served as a company commander in the German colony Deutsch-Südwestafrika, where he took part in the bloody Herero and Namaqua Genocide.[9] Von Epp also served as the NSDAP's head of its Military-Political Office from 1928 to 1945, and later as leader of the German Colonial Society, an organization devoted to regaining Germany's lost colonies.
Several other notable members of the NSDAP received their initial education repressing people in German colonies[10], including:
Franz Ritter von Epp Reichsstatthalter of Bavaria,
member of GSWA schutztruppenHeinrich Ernst Göring
Hermann GöringHeinrich worked in German Southwest Africa,
Hermann was a well known member of the NSDAPEduard von Liebert member NSDAP,
governor German South West AfricaPaul von Lettow-Vorbeck joined NSDAP in 1928,
German South West Africa
German Kamerun and
German East Africa, with General von TrothaFriedrich von Lindequist member NSDAP,
governor German South West AfricaKarl Peters member NSDAP in 1933,
founder of German East Africa,
(praised by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Hitler)Wilhelm Röemann member NSDAP, in German South West Africa
(under General von Trotha)Paul Rohrbach Settlement commissioner in GSWA[11] Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918[12]
Rohrbach was associated with the Reichsgau Wartheland during the Third ReichHeinrich Schneem member NSDAP, governor German East Africa,
president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG),
president Deutsche weltwirtschaftliche gessellschaftTheodore Seitz governor of German Kamerun,
governor German South West Africa,
president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG)
The bridge between the the Second Reich and the Third Reich was through Germany's African colonial empire! See German Ost (East).
Major personages and propaganda
The objective of the policy of German South West Africa Governor Theodor von Leutwein was not to destroy the indigenous populations (Herero, Nama, Damara) in order to seize their land to encourage settlement of German farmers; nor was it to seize or kill the cattle. Leutwein's objective was not genocide, and he was wise enough to realize that the indigenous population could be used as a labor supply. However, such Flavian tactics left Leutwein open to attack at home, with a public who wanted the instant gratification of a decisive defeat of the indigenous peoples of German South West Africa. (This was the same problem Augustus Flavius had with the Roman public, who wanted him to quickly defeat Hannibal.) As a consequence, Leutwein was pushed aside by Kaiser Wilhelm II and replaced by Lothar von Trotha, already known for his brutality in China as well as German East Africa. The result was the genocide of the indigenous population, the economic ruin of German South West Africa, and the eventual loss of the German colonial empire. [13][14]
As a consequence of this failed, brutal policy, Trotha was forced to leave German South West Africa and replaced by Friedrich von Lindequist, who completed the genocide with the use of extermination camps and concentration camps. In order for this policy to be acceptable at home, propaganda was employed. The claim was made that the 'barbaric' indigenous population wished to murder defenseless women and children. In fact, only four German women were killed, and one German child.
Extermination of the indigenous people of GSWA
Children were abused and exterminated; women and children were used as slave labor; women and children were used as 'comfort women' and sex slaves; and the entire object of gaining profit for the Second Reich was placed into doubt at home in Germany.
One of the following images has been censored, though it appears in many books and is in the public domain; see Jurgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller and E. J. Neather, "Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 and Its Aftermath", Merlin Press (December 1, 2007), p. 137.
A summary of concentration camps in German South West Africa
In the table below, Extermination camps are highlighted in light red; Concentration camps are highlighted in blue, Collection or Work camps are unmarked.
Name[15][16] Est. deaths[17] Notes Bondelslokation Karibib Keetmanshoop Lüdertiz Okahandja Four subcamps or kraals: [18]
#1: Young children;
#2: Prisoners of War;
#3: Sick and dying;
#4: Police camp (mostly Damara)Okomitombe Omaruru Omburo Otjihaenena Otjozongombe Shark Island 3,000 (In Lüderitzbucht, 121.2% for Nama, 30% for Herero) Swakopmund 74% Windhoek 50.4% There were two lager (camps) at Windhoek. One should bear in mind that the above table of concentration camps, extermination camps and collection or work camps did not exhaust all the other places where indigenous people were interned.
"There were numerous smaller and lesser concentration camps in the colony. Some pertained to private businesses such as the Woermann company and others to government related projects such as railway construction, which saw several thousands of Herero 'accommodated' in 'Railway Concentration Labour Camps'." [19]
"Hereros working in Swakopmund had been rounded up and interned on two Woermann line ‘steamers’ anchored off the coastal town’s shores."[20]
Firma Lenz used slave labor to build railway embankments.[21]
The Arthur Koppel Company constructed the Otavi railroad.[22]
Etappenkommando in charge of supplies of prisoners to companies, private persons, etc., as well as any other materials. Concentration camps implies poor sanitation and a population density that would imply disease.[23]
Prisoners were used as slave laborers in mines and railways, for use by the military or settlers.[24][25][26][27][28] [29]
The Herero and Namaqua genocide has been recognised by the United Nations and by the German Federal Republic. At the 100th anniversary of the camp's foundation, German Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul commemorated the dead on-site and apologised for the camp on behalf of Germany.[30][31]
See also
- Herero Wars
- Herero and Namaqua Genocide
- Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive
- Shark Island, German South West Africa
- German South West Africa
- Windhoek Concentration Camp
- Swakopmund Concentration Camp
Sources of information
Horst Drechsler, "Let Us Die Fighting: The Struggle of the Herero and Nama against German Imperialism (1884-1915)", Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1986 (3rd Ed.)
This was a pioneering work, and remains a major source of information about German South West Africa. Unfortunately, the book does not provide any photographs.
Casper W. Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-08", University of Leiden African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005.
This book should be considered a major source of information on German South West Africa. It contains many photographs and several rare maps, including a great deal of information about the Shark Island Extermination Camp and the other extermination camps and collection centers.
Jan-Bart Gewald, "Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923", James Currey, Oxford, 1999.
This book has a great many photographs and maps.
Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, UCT Press, 2011.
This book contains several photographs and maps. The book focuses on the extermination order issued by Kaiser Wilhelm II to Lothar von Trotha, as well as several other extermination orders issued by Kaiser Wilhelm II. It also contains extermination orders issued by Lothar von Trotha,[32] and the misleading proclamation made by Trotha's successor, Governor Friedrich von Lindequist, asking the Herero and Nama to turn themselves in to facilities that were actually concentration camps, including Omburo and Otjihaemena.
"Report on the natives of South-West Africa and their treatment by Germany." Administrator's Office, Windhuk [sic], London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1918. (Blue Book)
Originally available "At any bookstore or through H. M. Stationery Office [His Majesty's Stationery Office]", until 1926, when it was removed from the public and destroyed. There are many revisionists of history who claim that this book is biased. However:
"A number of eyewitness accounts do exist and some victim accounts are found in the Blue Book, which recorded accounts of the atrocities committed during the Herero war.Since the British produced the Blue Book during World War I reservations about its objectivity remain. However, the sentiments contained in the 1918 Report were already present in a British report of 1909, which stated:
"The great aim of German policy in German South West Africa, as regards the native, is to reduce him to a state of serfdom, and, where he resists, to destroy him altogether. The native, to the German, is a baboon and nothing more. The war against the Hereros, conducted by General Von Trotha, was one of extermination; hundreds -- men, women and children -- were driven into desert country, where death from thirst was their end; whose [sic] left over are now in great locations near Windhuk [sic] where they eke out a miserable existence; labour is forced upon them and naturally is unwillingly performed.[33]
In August 1912 [pre-dates World War I], another British foreign office official commented:
"In view of the cruelty, treachery [and] commercialism by which the German colonial authorities have gradually reduced their natives to the status of cattle (without so much of a flutter being caused among English peace loving philanthropists) the [Portuguese] S. Thome agitation in its later phases against a weak [and] silly nation without resources is the more sickening. These Herreros were butchered by thousands during the war & have been ruthlessly flogged into subservience since."[34]
Brigitte Lau, "History and Historiography: 4 essays in reprint", Discourse/MSORP, Windhoek, May, 1995
Both Erichsen and Sarkin refer to Brigitte Lau as a denialist. Nevertheless, in essay III, between pages 50 and 51 of her work, nine photographs with captions including "prisoner of war camps, in Windhoek and Luderitz", are published. Lau was a research officer at the National Archives of Namibia, and in 1991 was appointed Head of the National Archives of Namibia.
References
- ^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 336-337: "At the end of his colonial policy conclusions, Fischer designed a system of apartheid for German Southwest Africa, long before such a system was introduced in South Africa: the Ovambo and Herero were to be deployed as agricultural laborers, the Hottentots as herders. The "Bastards of Rehoboth," in contrast, were assigned an important function as a privileged intermediate class, "as native craftsmen and manual laborers [...], as policemen, i.e minor officers, foremen, and leaders of the entire supply lines and vehicle pool of the government, troops and private persons, in part as small farmers in their bastard country, to which everyone returns after serving their time." Despite his paternalistic attitude toward the "little nation of bastards," Fischer regarded the Rehoboths from the perspective of the colonial masters:
So they will be granted just that degree of protection which they need as a race inferior to us, in order to endure, no more and only as long as they are useful to us -- otherwise free competition, i.e. in my opinion, here downfall!
This last comment by Fischer reads like a retrospective justification of the war of extermination the German colonial troops had led against the rebellious Herero and Nama from 1904 to 1908. Fischer had profited from this genocide directly, for he apparently brought skulls and skeletons of "Hottentots" with him from Southwest Africa, which may have come from the internment camps on Shark Island, where people died like flies. The skeleton of the Nama leader Cornelius Frederiks (1907) also supposedly came into Fischer's collection in this way."
- ^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 253: "In July 1940 -- by this time Fischer had coordinated his plans for reorganizing the institute with Baron Ottmar von Verschuer -- the departing director expressed himself more clearly to Telschow:
In repetition of earlier conversations, Prof. Eugen Fischer designated prof. von Verschuer in Frankfort as a suitable successor. [...]
- ^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 279: "In July 1942 Verschuer reported to the race biologist Wolfgang Lehmann of Strasborg, a member of the "Dahlem circle": "I will take almost all of my staff from here, first of all[Heinrich] Schade and [Hans] Grebe, later [Josef] Mengele [...]"
- ^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 284: "Verschuer [...] filled the ranks of assistants with Hans Grebe, Siegfried Liebau, Hans Ritter, and Karin Magnussen [...]"
- ^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 379-381. In her interrogation by the Bremen Denazification Commission on May 25, 1949, Karin Magnussen testified that she worked closely with Dr. Josef Mengele and that Prof. von Verschuer worked closely with both Magnussen and Mengele.
- ^ Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 102
- ^ See Hans-Joachim Torke and John-Paul Himka, "German-Ukranian Relations in Historical Perspective", Canadian Institute of Ukranian Studies Press, Edmonton, 1994 (review).
- ^ See Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, "Gray zones: ambiguity and compromise in the Holocaust and its aftermath", Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 187-188
- ^ Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations google book review, author: Kurt Jonassohn, Karin Solveig Björnson, publisher: Transaction Publishers
- ^ http://techcrunch.com/2007/12/06/wikipedia-sued-for-nazi-sympathies/; see also Katina Schubert, Lutz Heilmann
- ^ Examples of views by individuals such as Paul Rohrbach and Eugen Fischer that were specific links between GSWA and Nazi Germany are given in Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 25. "Jonassohn points out how the writings of Paul Rohrbach, advocating the extermination or expulsion of the indigenous population to provide space for white settlers, later became part of the Nazi ethos. To confirm the link between the two eras Jonassohn also refers to Eugen Fischer, who conducted human experiments in GSWA and later Nazi Germany."
- ^ President of the German-Ukranian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006
- ^ Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them," African Studies Center, University of Leiden, Netherlands, 2003
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 23
- ^ Jeremy Silver, Casper Erichsen, "Luderitz's Forgotten Concentration Camp", at [1]
- ^ "The other annual average death rates (for the period Oct. 1904 to Mar. 1907) were as follows: Okahandja, 37.2%; Windhuk, 50.4%; Swakopmund, 74%; Shark Island in Lüderitzbucht, 121.2% for Nama, 30% for Herero. Traugott Tjienda, headsman of the Herero at Tsumbe and foreman of a large group of prisoners at the Otavi lines for two years, testified years later to a death rate of 28% (148 dead of 528 laborers) in his unit, Union of South Africa, 'Report on the Natives', 101." In this excerpt, "BA-Berlin" means Bundesarchiv (Berlin-Lichterfelde); "Lüderitzbucht" means Lüderitz Bay; Tsumbe was a copper mine; Otavi was the railroad that the inmates of Shark Island were forced to build. See "Absolute Destruction: Military, Culture And the Practices of War in Imperial Germany", Isabel V. Hull, Cornell University Press, 2006; see footnote #64, pp. 81-82, 'Sterblichkeit in den Kriegsgefangenlargern,' Nr. KA II.1181, copy of undated report compiled by the Schutztruppe Command, read in Col. Dept. 24 M. 1908, BA-Berlin, R 1001. Nr. 2040, pp. 161-62.
- ^ A kraal is typically reserved for animals
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 49
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 23
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, pp. 59, 111
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 76
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 113
- ^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 43
- ^ “The loads … are out of all proportion to their strength. I have often seen women and children dropping down, especially when engaged on this work, and also when carrying very heavy bags of grain, weighing from 100 to 160lbs.” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 58
- ^ “The unfortunate [POW] women are daily compelled to carry heavy iron for construction work, also big stacks of compressed fodder. I have often noticed cases where women have fallen under the load and have been made to go on by being thrashed and kicked by the soldiers and conductors. The rations supplied to the women are insufficient and they are made to cook the food themselves. They are always hungry, and we, labourers from the Cape Colony, have frequently thrown food into their camp. The women in many cases are not properly clothed. It is a common thing to see women going about in public almost naked. Have also noticed that … old women are also made to work and are constantly kicked and thrashed by soldiers. This treatment is meted out in the presence of the German officers, and I have never noticed any officers interfering.” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, pp. 60-61
- ^ “I have seen women and children with my own eyes at Angra Pequena, dying of starvation and overwork, nothing but skin and bone, getting flogged every time they fell under the heavy loads. I have seen them picking up bits of bread and refuse food thrown away outside our tents (…) … most of the prisoners, who compose the working gangs at Angra Pequena, are sent up from Swakopmund. There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men… When they fall they are sjamboked by the soldier in charge of the gang, with his full force, until they get up. Across the face was the favourite place for the sjamboking and I have often seen the blood flowing down the faces of the women and children and from their bodies, from the cuts of the weapon. (…) The women had to carry the corpses and dig the hole into which they were placed. They had no burial ceremony of any kind … The corpse would be wrapped in a blanket and carried on a rough stretcher … I have never heard one cry, even when their flesh was being cut to pieces with the sjambok. All feeling seemed to have gone out of them (…)” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 78
- ^ “I left Cape Town during the year 1906, and signed on with the Protectorate troops in South West Africa. I arrived at Lüderitzbrucht, and after staying there a few minutes I perceived nearly 500 native women lying on the beach, all bearing indications of being slowly starved to death. Every morning and towards evening four women carried a stretcher containing about four or five corpses, and they had also to dig the graves and bury them. I then started to trek to Kubub and Aus, and on the road I discovered bodies of native women lying between stones and devoured by birds of prey. Some bore signs of having been beaten to death … If a prisoner were found outside the Herero prisoners’ camp, he would be brought before the Lieutenant and flogged with a sjambok. Fifty lashes were generally imposed. The manner in which the flogging was carried out was the most cruel imaginable … .pieces of flesh would fly from the victim’s body into the air …” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 80
- ^ “Forcing women to pull carts as if they were animals was in tune with the treatment generally meted out to Herero prisoners in Lüderitz as elsewhere in the colony. Missionary Vedder in Swakopmund noted that overall, prisoners were regarded no better than animals. He said: ‘Like cattle hundreds were driven to their death and like cattle they were buried.’” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p 84
- ^ “Germany admits Namibia genocide,” [[BBC News, August 14, 2004]
- ^ “Namibia - Genocide and the second Reich”
- ^ The proclamation issued by General Lothar von Trotha on 2 October 1904. In that document he decreed:
The Herero people will have to leave the country. Otherwise I shall force them to do so by means of guns. Within the German boundaries, every Herero, whether found armed or unarmed, with or without cattle, will be shot. I shall not accept any more women or children. I shall drive them back to their people otherwise I shall order them to be shot.
Signed: the Great General of the Mighty Kaiser, von Trotha"Some scholars, such as Brigitte Lau, have denied the existence of the order itself. In 1989, she noted that no original copy of the order in German existed. However, Berat argues correctly that subsequent references to the order in German colonial documents confirms the veracity of it. Besides, the original order has been located and now resides in the Botswana National Archives. [...] Much of the Blue Book, as Wellington points out, consists of translations of German sources. The veracity of these records has not been questioned, neither have the translations been critised as inaccurate." pp. 110, 111, 30-31, Sarkin.
- ^ This reference pre-dates World War I, and therefore should not be influenced by war purposes. Report by Captain H. S. P. Simon, 'Report on German South West Africa', 6 April 1909, FO 367-236, quoted in Louis, W. M. R. (1967) 'Great Britain and German expansion in Africa 1984-1919'. In P. Gifford and W. M. R. Louis (Eds.), "Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial rivalty and colonial rule." Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 3-46, 33-34.
- ^ Report by Captain H. S. P. Simon, 'Report on German South West Africa', 6 April 1909, FO 367-236, quoted in Louis, W. M. R. (1967) 'Great Britain and German expansion in Africa 1984-1919'. In P. Gifford and W. M. R. Louis (Eds.), "Britain and Germany in Africa: Imperial rivalty and colonial rule." Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 3-46, 38.
Categories:- German South-West Africa
- Concentration camps
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.