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Voices & Positions Controversial Kinship

Perspectives and Positions. Interview with Sebastian Conrad on the comparison between colonialism and national socialism

9 October 2026 5 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 Sebastian Conrad, Free University of Berlin, talks about his perspective on the comparison in a video interview:

“Well, I think, first of all, that it’s helpful and important to ask why this comparison is even being discussed, or why it’s so politicised or controversial. It doesn’t have to do with the subject matter itself, but with the way in which these subjects – the Holocaust and colonialism – are mobilised in the politics of remembrance. That is to say, with the way in which the Holocaust, particularly in the German context, has become part of the Federal Republic’s self-understanding, and, on the other hand, the way in which colonialism in recent years and has been used as a tool not only for the self-understanding of countries in the Global South, but also in other ways.”

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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.

Sebastian Conrad

Sebastian Conrad is a historian at the Freie Universität Berlin.

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Voices & Positions

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