Arbeitkreis Panafrikanismus München e.V.
To:
Sigmar Gabriel,MdB
SPD
Deutscher Bundestag
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
Open letter to Mr. Sigmar Gabriel’s comment during Gunther Jauch’s talk show on 24th March 2013 on ARD.
Dear Mr. Gabriel,
The Pan-Africanism Working Group Munich demands that you correct your comment and that you recognise the German genocide in Namibia as such!
During Günther Jauch’s talk show on ARD on Sunday March, 24th 2013 at 21:45 h regarding the topic: “Mother, Father what have you done during the war? The History of our Family (second World War)“, Günther Jauch, the host, asked the SPD chairman the following question: Mr. Gabriel are we Germans with our history of the Nazi period something like a special case amongst other peoples or as today’s Spiegel magazine writes: One has to sometimes open the wounds so they won’t heal?”
Mr. Gabriel’s answer: “... first of all what happened is a special case. I mean there was never before an industrial mass murder… never before was there such a perfect and well organized crime that cost millions of lives. Never before…”
Of course out of solidarity and dismay we recognize the Holocaust as a crime against humanity and especially against the Jews. Dismay also because people of African descent have lost their lives during World War II.
Nevertheless we demand that you answer our question, if German colonialism and its genocide in Namibia 1904 – 1908 were not fully planed. Or do the hundreds of thousands of victims not count because they were not millions? Was the transatlantic slavery for which Germany was also partly responsible with its millions of victims not an industrial and well organized genocide?
If yes, why should the well organized genocides (colonialism and slavery) not be defined and recognized as such?
According to Hamado Dipama, chairman of the Pan-Africanism Working Group Munich “It is important to mention here that the first concentration camps of the German history were built in Namibia. These were actually forerunners of the concentration camps of the Nazis during the second World War”.
We hereby remind you that your party’s faction together with the faction of the Green party in the Federal Parliament moved a motion on March 22nd 2012 in which the following was demanded: “…the Federal Parliament shall resolve that the genocidal war in Namibia from 1904 - 1908 was a war crime and a genocide.” Hence, it is for us incomprehensible that you as chairman of the SPD party would make such a statement.
We hereby request you to make a statement regarding the above.
Hamado Dipama
Chairman
Pan-Africanism Working Group Munich e.V.