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Reparations and reconciliation: negotiating claims of historical injustice in the case of the herero genocide

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Date Issued:
2013
Summary:
To date, Germany has denied any obligation to financial compensation for the Herero genocide of 1904-1907. The Herero began petitioning in 1995 and haven’t yet seen results. The reconciliation process has been slowed by German denial and Namibian politics alike. Germany maintains that genocide was not technically illegal until the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, an argument that contradicts the hundreds of millions of dollars they continue to pay to Jewish victims as restitution for WWII. Historians argue that there are extensive links between German colonialism and the Jewish Holocaust. German concentration camps in Namibia developed extermination techniques that later enabled Jewish Holocaust, and both used the victims’ bodies for scientific research. In 2012, a delegation of Namibians retrieved 20 skulls of Herero and Nama victims from Germany. The repatriation of the skulls stimulated a resurgence of debate about reparations, motivating the Left Party to make a motion in German parliament that outlines an apology, repatriation, reparations, and continued partnership between the two nations.
Title: Reparations and reconciliation: negotiating claims of historical injustice in the case of the herero genocide.
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Name(s): Williams, Leslie
O’Brien, William
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Thesis
Date Created: Spring 2013
Date Issued: 2013
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: pdf
Extent: 72 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: To date, Germany has denied any obligation to financial compensation for the Herero genocide of 1904-1907. The Herero began petitioning in 1995 and haven’t yet seen results. The reconciliation process has been slowed by German denial and Namibian politics alike. Germany maintains that genocide was not technically illegal until the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, an argument that contradicts the hundreds of millions of dollars they continue to pay to Jewish victims as restitution for WWII. Historians argue that there are extensive links between German colonialism and the Jewish Holocaust. German concentration camps in Namibia developed extermination techniques that later enabled Jewish Holocaust, and both used the victims’ bodies for scientific research. In 2012, a delegation of Namibians retrieved 20 skulls of Herero and Nama victims from Germany. The repatriation of the skulls stimulated a resurgence of debate about reparations, motivating the Left Party to make a motion in German parliament that outlines an apology, repatriation, reparations, and continued partnership between the two nations.
Identifier: FA00003540 (IID)
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Thesis (B.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, 2013.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: FAU Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00003540
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Host Institution: FAU

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