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Voices & Positions Controversial Kinship

Perspectives and Positions. Interview with Martin Thomas on the question of whether there is a connection between colonial and National Socialist violence

9 October 2026 8 Min.

Debates about the similarities and differences between colonial violence and Nazi rule have carried on since the 1930s and continue to the present day. Rooted in the fields of history, the social sciences, and cultural studies, these debates shape political discourse, media coverage, art, and the cultures of remembrance. The discussion focuses on questions of continuity, discontinuity, and comparability.

The interviews with experts as part of the exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence” present a range of perspectives and positions in the debate. Historian Martin Thomas, University of Exeter, talks about the question, if there is a connection between colonial and National Socialist violence in a video interview: 

“I think in a way the answer is both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. It’s yes in so far as Holocaust studies scholarship has so often begun from the premise that what makes the Holocaust unique is a state-sponsored, ideologically driven racial hatred that is consciously seeking the elimination of a particular ethno-religious group. Now, in a sense, that both makes the case for setting the Holocaust apart because the intentionality behind the Nazi genocide is so very apparent. But on the other hand, if one shifts the focus of the debate from intention to outcome then I think we open ourselves up to some very discomforting questions because other forms of colonialism, other forms, if you prefer, of foreign occupation, particularly where those occupations involve long-term settler colonialism, they, too, lead to extraordinarily high levels of mass killing”

[Translate to English:] Portrait Martin Thomas
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Conversation Partner

Portrait Stephan Malinowski
Stephan Malinowski

Dr. Stephan Malinowski is the curator of the exhibition “Controversial Kinship. Colonial and National Socialist Violence” at the Deutsches Historisches Museum.

Martin Thomas

Martin Thomas is a historian at the University of Exeter.

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Voices & Positions

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