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Voices & Positions Controversial Kinship

Perspectives and Positions. Interview with Ulrich Herbert about forced labour

9 October 2026 7 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 Ulrich Herbert, University of Freiburg, talks about forced labour in a video interview:

“First of all, it must be said that the whole issue of the murder of European Jews needs to be separated from the concept of forced labour. Forced labour was one aspect of the Nazis’ policy of the persecution and extermination of the Jews, but a secondary one. The Nazis’ objective regarding the Jews was to kill the Jews, to exterminate them – completely, as far as Europe was concerned.”

[Translate to English:] Portrait Ulrich Herbert
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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.

Ulrich Herbert

Ulrich Herbert is a historian at the University of Freiburg.

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Voices & Positions

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