Pt #3 Victims

The Herero and Namaqua were the victims of this genocide. They were killed by the thousands. They were forced into a corner that they could not survive.

In some peoples mind it was the Herero’s fault they were in their situation. They attacked the settlers in the area first. Though what they did was wrong they were being pushed by the settlers. The settlers first took their land, then they took their cattle, then they took their way of life. The two tribes were pushed off the edge so they struck back.

Germany sent in reinforcements and a new general after the attacks. Trotha first took out the tribes army by surrounding them on three sides and the forth side leading into the uninviting Kalahari desert. He then ordered some of his men to poison the few watering holes out there. Any Herero who tried to return was killed (Espresso Stalinist).”German patrols later found skeletons around holes 40 feet deep that were dug up in a vain attempt to find water”(Mark Wells).

Some of the survivors of the small war were put in concentration camps. Mostly older men, women, and children survived. The prisoners were given numbers and each death was recorded. The people were fenced in by either thorn bushes or barbed wire. The camps were small and compact. These conditions caused diseases and there was no means of hospitality. “Malnutrition, disease and forced labour killed an estimated 50-80% of the entire Herero population by 1908, when the camps were closed” (Mark Wells).

In the end most of the population of the Herero tribe was killed off. “Most historians accept a death rate of between 75 and 80 percent for the Herero (out of an original population of 60’000-80’000 people), and of about 45-50 percent for the Nama (whose prewar numbers were around 20’000)” (Gellately 144).