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29.09.2022

New English-language Study Day: "Colonial and Racist Thought and Practice in National Socialism."

In 1937, the Afro-German Thea Leyseck stated herself as a "German-Southwest African" as a way of asserting herself against the increasing racism in National Socialist Germany.

The Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial is offering a one to two day English-language training to the theme of "Colonial and Racist Thought and Practice in National Socialism’". This offer is aimed at those above 16 years of age.

An examination of discrimination and persecution, as well as black self-assertion and opposition during the Nazi regime, is the focus of this new study day. Following this, intersections between colonial and racist thought and conduct in National Socialism will be explored. Participants will discuss similarities and differences between colonial racism and antisemitism, antiziganism and slavophobia. What role did colonial concepts, antisemitism and slavophobia play in the National Socialist war to conquer "living space" in Poland and the Soviet Union?

The special aspect of this study day is that the historical narratives of colonialism and National Socialism, which are still largely separated from each other today, will be linked. At the same time, light will be shed onto the history of black people under National Socialist rule, of which little is still known today.

For the study day, documents from the cooperation project between the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, the University of Augsburg and the University of Hamburg will be used. This project was funded by the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" and has already been published in German in the series "Neuengammer Studienhefte" in 2019. This material will be complemented by additional biographies of Afro-Germans who grew up in Hamburg during the Nazi era, as well as Black prisoners at Neuengamme Concentration Camp.

Project Website:
www.verflechtungen-kolonialismus-nationalsozialismus.de

Booking Requests:
Dr. Susann Lewerenz, Tel.: +49 (0)40 428 131 536, E-Mail: susann.lewerenz@gedenkstaetten.hamburg.de

Anton de Kom from Surinam resisted the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War and was therefore deported to the Neuengamme concentration camp.
Collection of questions.