THE HOLOCAUST WAS NOT THE FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY.
The HERERO & NAMAQUA GENOCIDE took place between 1904 and 1907 in German colonized South Africa or known as modern day Namibia.
On January 12, 1904 The Herero people lead by Samuel Maharero rebelled against German colonial rule. In August of that year German general Lothar Von Trotha defeated the Herero resistance and drove them into the desert where most of them perished. In October the Nama rebelled but suffered the same fate.
The genocide was characterized by widespread death by starvation and thirst because the Herero who fled the violence were prevented from returning from the Namib Desert. Some sources also claim that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert wells.
Survivors, majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in concentration camps, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labor for German military and settlers, all prisoners were categorized into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating “death by exhaustion following privation” were issued. The death rates are calculated at between 69 and 74%; in total, from 24,000 up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama died.
General Trotha stated this about the genocide “I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this was not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country…This will be possible if the water-holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find the small groups of nation who have moved backwards and destroy them gradually.”
HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTOR
2012 my eye source [sold
