Black Histories Series: Holocaust Remembrance and the Linking of Oppressions

One of the saddest things about these inept UN conferences on global racism is the inability to compare oppressions without reducing it to the usual "my oppression is worse than yours" madness that marginal people often use against each other.

Well, earlier this week was Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 21, and so the Black histories I wish to highlight concern making connections between this history and "black histories."

Annette von Wangenheim, a German filmmaker whose work explores performers during early 20th century Germany, made a documentary film, Pages in the Factory of Dreams, in 2002. It focuses on Afro-German actors living in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany and explores how they were used as extras in Nazi propaganda films that connected racism, imperialism, and anti-Semitism. 

Another project worth considering in the wake of these connections is the World is Witness project of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which incorporates Google Maps and Google Earth to conduct a global genocidal watch.  Much of the focus is documenting present-day genocides on the African continent.