Between Africa and Poland: colonial discourses and the Nazi resettlement of ethnic Germans, 1939-1944
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Date
02/07/2019Author
O'Sullivan, Rachel
Metadata
Abstract
A significant historical debate regarding the potential structural similarities and
continuities between European colonialism and the Third Reich has been
ongoing throughout the last decade. Historians have employed different
approaches within the debate ranging from links between policies of the
Kaiserreich and the Nazi regime, to comparisons between North American
continental expansion into western territory and Nazi Germany’s expansion
into Eastern Europe. Previous arguments have attempted to prove that certain
colonial situations or policies acted as precursors to the Nazi regime.
However,
despite the various angles through which the debate has been approached, it
remains largely unsolved. Although specific elements of colonialism and the
Nazi regime are certainly comparable, the extent to which colonialism may
have influenced the Third Reich remains unclear.
This dissertation will contribute to this debate by utilising a comparative
study of two groups of colonial discourses; one group relates to German
overseas expansion in Africa whereas the other concerns German continental
expansion in Poland. Both these groups of discourses were simultaneously
created, shaped and elucidated throughout the Kaiserreich, Weimar Republic
and the Nazi regime. Although they were connected to different geographical
locations and were informed by different historical events and experiences, the
two groups of colonial discourses were strikingly similar. The aim of this
dissertation is to investigate and compare these colonial discourses, from the
Kaiserreich to the Third Reich, within the context of the resettlement of ethnic
Germans (Volksdeutsche) in Poland between 1939 and 1944. This analysis
will provide an example of where and in what ways certain elements of the two
groups of colonial discourses overlapped with justifications, fantasies and
ideology related to expansion, settlement and the treatment of both the ethnic
Germans and the native Polish population during the Third Reich.