Germans backtrack on genocide comments The German embassy in Namibia has defended remarks made by the German special envoy Ruprecht Polenz during a meeting with the Nama and OvaHerero technical committees. The committee members last week stormed out of a meeting after Polenz told them that they must stop comparing the Jewish holocaust and the Nama and OvaHerero genocide because the murder of the Jews was more severe.
The embassy however in its statement explained that Polenz “expressed his deeply felt conviction that every human life is of equal value and every loss is, thus, equally deplorable.”
According to the statement issued by embassy spokesperson, Gundula Perry, Polenz out of respect for all victims, rejected the notion to compare one genocide with other crimes against humanity.
“This, does apply in particular to any comparison with the holocaust because of substantially different motives driving the German Nazi leadership when persecuting all Jews all over Europe and implementing the industrialised mass-killing of human beings to annihilate Jews only because they were Jews,” said Perry. The embassy also rejected claims by committee members that the conference room was locked and the ambassador tried to keep them hostage.
“The German embassy deeply deplores the course of events which prevented an important exchange of information including differing positions in a serious and professional manner adequate to the importance of the matter,” the statement said.
JEMIMA BEUKES