What connects colonial and National Socialist violence? How do they differ? And why is the possible kinship between these two regimes of violence still disputed to this day? Since the 1930s, these questions have been asked again and again: by anti-colonial thinkers, publicists, politicians, historians and survivors of the Holocaust. The exhibition "Umstrittene Verwandtschaft. Koloniale und nationalsozialistische Gewalt" thus addresses a juxtaposition that has a history of nearly a hundred years and extends well beyond historical scholarship. The exhibition traces the ongoing debate about similarities, differences and equation back to its historical origins. In doing so, the Deutsches Historisches Museum aims to contribute to a differentiated engagement and to enable the public to judge the comparisons for themselves on the basis of historical facts.
The interviews with international scholars within the framework of the exhibition present a range of perspectives and positions in this debate.