One in seven Herero prisoners were chained in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC Herero prisoners were chained in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
With ceremonies this Saturday (27), several countries will mark the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust a day set by the United Nations to commemorate Nazi atrocities against Jews and other minorities.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp.
This year, the ceremonies took on greater significance given the war in Gaza and the Hamas attack on Israel in October last year, which killed 1,300 people and took 240 hostages.
According to the Hamascontrolled Health Ministry, Israel's response caused the deaths of more than 25,000 people in Gaza.
South Africa accuses Israel of genocide against the Palestinians at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The international discussion about Israel finally shed light on another genocide that Germany committed alongside the Holocaust and which continues to cause controversy and disagreement to this day.
Germany expressed support for Israel at the Hague court and this sparked criticism from Namibia, an African country that suffered German atrocities in the early 20th century.
“In view of Germany's history and the crime against humanity of the Holocaust, the government sees itself as particularly committed to the Genocide Convention,” the federal government said in a statement during the trial at the Hague court.
Namibian President Hage Geingob appealed to Germany to reconsider its decision.
In 2021, after more than 100 years, Berlin admitted to committing genocide in Namibia.
German colonizers massacred more than 70,000 Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1908. Historians consider this to be the first genocide of the 20th century.
Geingob said Germany could not “morally commit to the United Nations Convention against Genocide, including reparations for the genocide in Namibia” and at the same time support Israel.
“The German government has not yet fully made amends for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil,” he added.
German genocide in Namibia
The wounds that Germany left in Namibia after what has now been recognized as genocide by colonial powers are deep and old.
When Germany officially recognized the atrocities committed in 2021, it offered the African country a sum of money as compensation.
But how do you compensate for the destruction of an entire society? What price should I set?
Germany agreed to pay more than $1 billion.
“In view of Germany’s historical and moral responsibility, we will apologize to Namibia and the descendants of the victims,” said then Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in 2021.
The minister added that in a “gesture of recognition of the immense suffering inflicted on the victims,” his country would support the African nation's development through a program expected to cost more than $1.3 billion.
The amount will be paid out over 30 years and invested in infrastructure, medical assistance and training programs that benefit affected communities.
At the time, some Namibian leaders refused to support the agreement. Descendants of the victims and settlers fiercely debated the financial value of the genocide.
The German colony in southwest Africa
“There was a concentration camp along this beach,” says Laidlaw Peringanda, activist and head of the Namibian Genocide Association. “The barbed wire ran where the parking lot is today.”
The artist and activist points to a series of street cafes and a children's playground on the beach in Swakopmund, Namibia's main coastal town, where the cold waters of the Atlantic wash the shores of the Namib Desert.
2 of 7 Swakopmund is one of the most visited beaches in Namibia Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC Swakopmund is one of the most visited beaches in Namibia Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
“My greatgrandmother said that some members of our family were brought here, forced to work and died.”
It refers to the years 19041908, when what is now Namibia was a German colony in southwest Africa.
Tens of thousands of people died when colonial forces brutally suppressed uprisings organized by two of the country's main peoples, the Herero and the Nama. Most of them were killed and the rest were driven to the Omaheke Desert in the east of the country, where many of them died of starvation.
Survivors ended up in camps where they were used as slave labor.
It is estimated that around 65,000 of the 80,000 Herero who lived under German rule in southwest Africa died, as did around 10,000 of the estimated 20,000 Nama.
If they didn't starve, they died of exhaustion, thirst or gunfire. The rape of women was systematic.
Hundreds of skulls from victims were sent to Germany to study racial differences and determine white superiority. Twenty of these skulls were returned to Namibia from a hospital in Berlin in 2011.
The atrocities committed have been described by historians as the “forgotten genocide” of the early 20th century.
3 of 7 Laidlaw Peringanda in a mass grave of concentration camp victims Photo: BBC Laidlaw Peringanda in a mass grave of concentration camp victims Photo: BBC
“Every Herero, with or without weapons, will be executed”
The European powers sealed the division of Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884. Germany, which had colonies in what is now Cameroon, Togo and Tanzania, also annexed the southwest coast of the African continent, which is now part of Namibia.
There, Germany expelled communities from their land, which they handed over to German settlers. The local population was subjected to all kinds of abuse.
In 1903, Herero and Nama warriors rebelled and launched attacks that killed dozens of settlers.
Germany reacted ruthlessly.
In 1904, German Emperor Wilhelm II sent some 14,000 soldiers to Namibia under the command of Lothar von Trotha, the general who brutally suppressed indigenous rebellions in China and East Africa.
Those who survived battles like Waterberg were killed or forced into the Kalahari Desert, where German soldiers poisoned wells.
Von Trotha's message to the Herero leaves no doubt: “I, General of the German soldiers, am sending this letter to the Herero. The Herero nation must leave the country… If they refuse, I will force them with cannon fire.” . Every Herero, with or without weapons, will be executed.”
4 of 7 Train transports Herero prisoners to concentration camp in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC Train transports Herero prisoners to concentration camp in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
“Von Trotha told his soldiers that they would not lose their honor if they shot women and children. They shot to scare them and force them to flee into the desert, where they would face certain death from thirst and hunger,” says Reinhart Koessler, a professor who earned his doctorate at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Freiburg and is a specialist in political memory Scientist who has studied Germany's colonial past in West Africa for two decades.
For Koessler, von Trotha's words represented “a clear intent to destroy, and that is what constitutes genocide, the desire to destroy an ethnic group.”
The rape of Herero and Nama women was so common that many descendants now have German ancestors.
“I am a direct descendant of the Herero. My paternal and maternal grandparents had German blood in their veins because German soldiers sexually abused my people,” says Ngondi Kamatuka, acting president of the Ovaherero Association against Genocide in the United States.
One of the most important questions for Namibians for many years was how a material compensation agreement could be reached.
Laidlaw Peringanda, like most Herero, was clear: an enormous financial contribution should be made to restore the prosperity that he believed his people enjoyed as pastoralists before the genocide.
Subsequently, most of the land was divided into private farms and given to German settlers.
And today, most Herero and Nama live in small, crowded areas of communal land later allocated to them, or in the villages, “informal settlements” and slums where 40% of Namibia's population lives.
In Swakopmund there is a large social divide between the beautiful colonialera town center with its pastelcolored buildings, home to many of the grandchildren and greatgrandchildren of the original settlers, and the clapboardandmetal slums that stretch for miles to the north.
5 out of 7 huts made of wood and tin stretch for kilometers in the north of the country Photo: BBC Huts made of wood and tin stretch for kilometers in the north of the country Photo: BBC
“They have no toilets, no running water and no electricity,” says Laidlaw.
“Some of the people who live there are descendants of concentration camp victims. It’s really unfair what’s happening.”
The hope is that the German government's money will be used to finance a land reform program that will enable the purchase and distribution of German Namibian farmers' farms to the Herero and Nama people.
German Namibians are believed to be the largest group among white farmers, owning around 70% of the country's agricultural land.
Some of his properties are huge one of them, for example, covers more than 1,000 km².
Namibia's chief negotiator, Ambassador Zed Ngavirue, said before the agreement was announced that Germany “recognized that it has to do something to help us rebuild our society.”
But he added: “I don’t want to kid myself that Germany will solve the land problem. We’re not just talking about the loss of land due to German colonization.”
After Germany lost its colony in World War I, many more settlers arrived and South West Africa was ruled by South Africa for 70 years.
Since independence in 1990, both Namibians and foreigners have purchased land in the country.
It's not just the victims' descendants who remain skeptical about the reparations measures.
The same applies to some of the approximately 30,000 Germanspeaking men and women who remained in Namibia: descendants of settlers.
“The myth of genocide is nothing more than moral blackmail,” said historian Andreas Vogt.
Like many GermanNamibians, Vogt believes that the infamous “extermination order” signed in 1904 by the commander of the colonial troops, General Lothar von Trotha, was not state policy and was never implemented.
The order stated: “Any Herero found within the German border, with or without a weapon, will be executed.”
6 out of 7 In Swakopmund there is a huge social divide between the beautiful colonialera town center and the makeshift huts that stretch out to the north Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC In Swakopmund there is a major social divide between the beautiful colonialera town City center and the makeshift huts that stretch to the north Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
“The portrayal of a brutal and ruthless genocidal German colonial rule on the one hand and the unsullied and completely innocent Herero people on the other is corrupt. It takes two parties to make something happen,” said Vogt.
He and other German Namibians point out that the Herero rebelled against German rule in 1904 and killed about 120 German settlers, but were later defeated in the decisive Battle of Waterberg.
In 2020, Anton von Wietersheim, a GermanNamibian who served as a government minister shortly after independence, helped launch an initiative to encourage Germanspeaking Namibians to discuss the past, both among themselves and with representatives of Herero and Nama.
7 of 7 German Armada in attack position in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC German Armada in attack position in 1904 Photo: Getty Images/Via BBC
GermanNamibian academic and activist Henning Melber, who has studied the background to the negotiations, says other former colonial powers in Europe have expressed concern to Germany that the Namibian agreement would trigger a flood of claims from different nations against different settler nations. African, Southeast Asian and other places.
Tanzania, the successor to another former German colony, Tanganyika, is already demanding reparations for atrocities, and other former colonies may also do the same.
* With reporting by Tim Whewell