Prologue: The Evil of Our World
The 20th Century got off to an early start in the arena of genocide with the Germans’ coordinated slaughter of the Namibians in 1904. Jason Bell, in his book “Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code,” describes the tactics of the Germans:
“Their military drove ten to twenty-five thousand people, mainly civilians, into the desert, intending them to die of thirst. The occupiers wanted to control southwest Africa and were furious that the people who already lived there tried to defend their land. German snipers were posted at oases to shoot those who were desperate enough for a drink.” (boldface mine)
Few people will remember this – even the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states that the genocide perpetrated by the Muslim Ottoman Empire (Turkey) on the Armenian Christians from spring 1915 through autumn 1916 “is sometimes referred to as the first genocide of the 20th Century.”
Now here is a curious, perhaps coincidental, confluence of history at the time of the First World War, especially as Germany and the Ottoman Empire were allies in the First World War.
Jason Bell also states in his book:
“The roots of Germany’s militarist anti-Jewish scheme went back to a secret meeting of the racists in 1915. Those proto-Nazi plotters could not yet know that the Armistice would go into effect on November 11, 1918. But they knew that on whatever day the fighting ended, the Second World War would begin. Jews would be their first target.
“Why? When they failed to win the war immediately in 1914, the clever militarists realized that they would likely lose. And yet, the racists still believed they needed to win. For them, they could only win or lose a race war, but not negotiate. The only way out of the seeming paradox was to regroup and try again. They already hated the Jews before their 1915 plot, but now they had the clever thought that a racist attack would camouflage their failure to win the war they had unwisely begun.
“On November 30, 1917, a German newspaper, the Judische Rundschau (Jewish Review), posted a notice about its discovery of the Anti-Semitic League’s ‘strictly confidential’ 1915 plot for world war (Weltkrieg) against the Jews and Judaism. The newspaper had unearthed a letter sent by the group to raise funds for the next stage of the fight, to pay for distributing their anti-Jewish plans to ‘officers, civil officials, landowners, merchants, and large manufacturers, lawyers, doctors, and students,’ to bring them on board without letting Jewish people know what was happening. The secret war would be a real ‘surprise’ for the Jews, the letter stated, and it would start ‘immediately’ after the present war ended.”
In Jason Bell’s footnote for this last paragraph he says: “The English translations are from a review article, ‘An Anti-Jewish Campaign,’ Birmingham Daily Post, January 1, 1918. ‘Anti-Semitic League’ is the newspaper’s translation of the Rundschau’s ‘antisemitischen Bewegung.’ It is not clear whether the plotters called themselves anything, or if it was an unnamed plot.”
The Ottoman Empire may have taken a page from the genocide playbook of Germany by replicating some of the same German 1904 genocide tactics for the Armenian genocide in 1915. In both cases, Namibian victims and Armenian victims, among facing other brutalities, were driven into the desert without food and water.
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This is similar to the annihilation strategy that the Nazis would employ near the end of WWII with the death marches of the barely surviving Jewish remnant from Eastern European concentration camps who were marched to concentration camps in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia as the Red Army pushed westward.
The death marches from Auschwitz, for example, began in January 1945 before the liberation of the camp on Jan. 27, 1945. Imagine walking in the freezing Polish winter without winter clothing or footwear for days, often without food and water, and shot if you dropped behind.
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Why is this account of the Armenian genocide especially relevant here in this prologue?
In Hitler’s August 22, 1939, pronouncement — one week before Nazi Germany invaded Poland — regarding his friendship pact with the Soviet Union:
“..I have placed my death-head formations in readiness — for the present only in the East — with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” (boldface mine)
A CAUTIONARY WORD ABOUT NUMBERS:
Reporting the numbers of victims of Nazi Germany can be complicated. While six million is the generally cited number of Jews extinguished by Nazi Germany actions, after that things can get confusing.
Take the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau for one example. I personally do not mention the generally cited number of 1.1 million Jews (primarily) and others killed there. Why? Because this can be used for Holocaust denial, especially by people who do not know that extermination camps were only part of the vast Nazi Germany killing machine.
I also do not use the generally cited number of 11 million killed by Nazi Germany – a number that includes Jews and many others. Instead I say six million Jews and millions of others including homosexuals, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, and political opponents. The reason for this is due to the January 20, 1942, Wannsee Conference in Berlin of top Nazis discussing the “Final Solution of the European Jewish question.”
Before this Wannsee Conference Adolph Eichmann prepared a list in two parts by country of the number of Jews to be killed. The first part listed countries under Reich control such as occupied France – 165,000 Jews – and Vichy France – 700,000 Jews. The second part listed countries that were allies, neutral states and those at war with Germany such as ally Hungary – 742,800 Jews, ally Rumania – 342,000 Jews, and opponent England – 300,000 Jews. Not to mention the USSR with 5 million Jews. Eichmann’s entire list consisted of approximately 11 million Jews to be killed. This number of 11 million when cited can be unclear as to what it refers.
The website of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center carries this statement:
“It is best when referencing the total number of victims of the Holocaust to say 6 million Jews and millions of others. All Holocaust organizations are making a united move to adhere to this message …”
NEXT CHAPTER: Chapter 1: What You Know About the Holocaust Is Probably Wrong or Incomplete