J-M's History Corner

We're all familiar with Germany's Holocaust of Jews and other undesirables in World War II; heck, the word Holocaust has become synonymous with that event.  Not as known, though, was Germany's "warm up" a few decades prior... practiced on native Africans at the height of European colonialism in the continent. From Weird History: Decades before the Holocaust, Germans carried out another genocide. But unlike the Holocaust and other genocides, some of which were turned into holidays , most people have never heard of the atrocities committed by the Germans in Namibia. The German genocide in Africa targeted two African nations, the Herero and the Namaqua, both of whom resisted German colonial rule. German colonizers used brutal tactics, including poisoning drinking water, whipping children, and performing horrific medical experiments on prisoners. The Herero and Namaqua genocides may be two of history's  lesser known genocides , but the atrocities committed ...

The Holocaust was one of the largest mass murders in history.  Between 1941 and 1945, Germany's Nazi regime rounded up Jews and other "undesirables" into concentration camps, where 17 million people (6 million Jews - i.e. two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population - and 11 million non-Jews) were murdered.  It's one of the most well-documented genocides in human history, and in part (emphasis on in part ) contributed to the recreation of the State of Israel in the Jews' ancient homeland.  Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's actions forever once and for all exposed anti-Semitism (and indeed, all forms of racism) for the bigotry and horror they really are. But in recent years - in part thanks to the internet, and racist conspiracy theorists who are no better than the backward, superstitious Middle Age folks who blamed everything (even natural disasters) on the Jews (modern codename: "Zionists"; yes, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism) - with the rise of anti-Sem...