German Herero-Nama Genocide
Extermination orders in South-West Africa
Imperial Germany's 1904-1908 campaign in South-West Africa paired an explicit extermination order with concentration camps and land seizure. It is a documented colonial genocide and a rehearsal for methods later used in Europe.
Damage
German colonial extermination campaign in Southwest Africa via killing orders, camps, and desert expulsion.
Lives lost
Tens of thousands of Herero and Nama killed (majority of those populations)
Value lost
Land and cattle expropriation for settler colonialism
Record Points
- General von Trotha's 1904 Vernichtungsbefehl declared that any Herero found inside German territory would be shot.
- Survivors driven into the Omaheke desert died of thirst after wells were poisoned or guarded.
- Shark Island and related camps produced extreme mortality among Nama and Herero prisoners used as forced labor.
- Between 24,000 and 100,000 Herero and roughly half the Nama population were killed.
- Germany acknowledged the genocide only in 2021, and the associated payment was framed as aid rather than reparations.
Perpetrator(s)
Victims
Namibia