Research Notes Argument Assignment Read All Documents Below Carefully

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Student Name

Mrs. Hughes

CP World Literature: English II

17 March 2017

Sample Research Notes for Genocide Paper

Background Information 1

The country that was formerly called “South West Africa” is now called Namibia. Formerly a

German colony, South West Africa was governed by South Africa from 1915 until 1990 (Davis).

Dehumanization 2

While the Germans arrived late to the colonization of Africa, they aspired to create a “model

colony” in South West Africa. In fact, “[t]he brutality of the Herero War can be understood

within the context of this need to perfect such a colonial ideal in order to establish​ ​modern

Germany as the equal of other European powers. Indeed, evidence exists that the virulent racism

characterizing the Holocaust was also partially formed there. Germany began experiments with

sterilization on Herero prisoners of war in the name of the science of eugenics shortly after the

turn of the century” (Harring).

Organization 3

● the Germans actually developed an organized plan of genocide when their military forces

could not win the war against the Herero

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● Kaiser Wilhelm II sent his general, General Lothar von Trotha, to make a proclamation.

● After this proclamation, the soldiers killed Herero people being held prisoner, and drove

others into the Kalahari Desert (Harring).

Extermination 4

South West Africa became a German colony in 1885. Right away, German mining companies

began exploring the country, and met the indigenous Nama and Herero peoples, who tried to

drive the Germans out of their lands. The German military arrived, and began using genocide to

gain control of the area, targeting and killing both Nama and Herero (Davis).

Extermination 5

● The Herero War of 1904 and 1905 killed at least 60,000 of the 80,000 Herero

● Herero lost all their lands and cattle.

● Black people in Namibia were moved away (Harring).

Extermination 6

“Under the command of General Lothar von Trotha, the German army waged a genocidal war

against the Herero. An estimated 80 percent of the Herero died as they were summarily hung or

shot, driven to die of thirst in the ​Omaheke​ region of the Kalahari desert, or incarcerated in

concentration camps. At the same time that a ​Vernichtungsbefehl​ (extermination order) against

the Herero was issued in October 1904 . . .” (Gewald).

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Denial 7

The Germans continued to tightly control all people from the Nama and Herero societies who

survived. They forced the Africans to wear numbered metal tags, and used them as slave labor.

The German administrators did not refer to the act of genocide directly. Instead they used the

term ​dissolved​ (​aufgelöst​) (Gewald).

Denial 8

“German civilian administrators, in view of labor needs within the colonial economy, opposed

the wholesale extermination of African societies, but were overruled by the military and the

German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II. German administrators attempted to establish a single

amorphous African working class bereft of, and indeed prohibited from having, an ethnic and

cultural identity beyond that deemed acceptable to the colonial state. Lands cleared of African

occupants were allocated as ranch lands to German settlers, many of whom had served as

soldiers in the Herero and Nama wars” (Gewald).

Affirmation/Reparation 9

● In 1995 Herero Paramount Chief Kuaimi Riruako demanded that the Germans pay his

people $600 million as a penalty for their actions.

● Herero War was an act of genocide (Harring).

Works Cited

Davis, R. Hunt. “South West Africa.” ​Encyclopedia of African History and Culture, Vol. 4,

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Revised Edition​, Facts on File, 2005. ​Modern World History​,

online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/257293?q=Herero AND genocide. 22 March

2017.

Gewald, Jan-Bart. "Namibia (German South West Africa and South West Africa)." ​Encyclopedia

of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity​, edited by Dinah L. Shelton, vol. 2,

Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 721-725. ​Gale Virtual Reference Library​,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=florence_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CCX3434600245&asid=e15ed701afd9aadcb2f50093f084aa0b. 22 Mar. 2017.

Harring, Sidney L. "Herero." ​Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity​, edited by

Dinah L. Shelton, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 436-438. ​Gale Virtual

Reference Library​,

go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=florence_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CCX3434600157&asid=68b21679c6b8747bce998203924bc215. 22 Mar. 2017.