Böcker av Jurgen Zimmerer

Although it lasted only thirty years, German colonial rule dramatically transformed South West Africa. The colonial government not only committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Herero and Nama, but in their efforts to establish a "e;model colony"e; and "e;racial state,"e; they brought about even more destructive and long-lasting consequences. In this now-classic study-available here for the first time in English-the author provides an indispensable account of Germany's colonial utopia in what is present-day Namibia, showing how the highly rationalized planning of Wilhelmine authorities ultimately failed even as it added to the profound immiseration of the African population.

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. This book examines the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust, and situates Nazi crimes firmly within the global history of mass violence.