Primary Sources and Databases
Once you have formed an understanding of the continuity debate’s two prominent stances using secondary sources, you are well-prepared to create your own arguments using primary source texts.
Below are documents and databases containing primary sources from Germany’s colonial and Nazi periods. With these primary sources, you can form your own opinion about the debate based on firsthand accounts.
Primary Sources: German Colonialism
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Words Cannot Be Found
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The 1918 Blue Book Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and Their Treatment by Germany, is based on the voluntary statements taken under oath of no less than 50 African witnesses. This testimony was combined with numerous German colonial documents to produce, not only a stinging indictment of German colonial policy in German South West Africa, but also the first detailed eyewitness accounts of the first genocide of the twentieth century. However, within ten years of being printed, orders were issued for the destruction of all copies of the Blue Book within the British Empire.The editors have investigated how the Blue Book came into being, provided background information to the events and people described, and sought to discover the original German documents upon which so much of the Blue Book material is based. The particular usefulness of the book lies in the fact that it gives voice to African testimony regarding the first genocide of the Twentieth Century.
ISBN: 9004129812Publication Date: 2003 -
Deutsch-Südwestafrika : Kriegs- und Friedensbilder : Selbsterlebnisse
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Summary from the Library of the Namibia Scientific Society: "Es herrscht an wirklich volkstümlichen Werken über deutsch-südwestafrika noch ein Mangel, der gerade jetzt fühlbar macht, wo die Kolonie nach Wiederherstellung des Friedens einem hohen wirtschaftlichen Aufschwung entgegengeht, und es wünschenwert erscheint.......... Verschiedene Aufsätze von Margarete von Eckenbrecher, helen von falkenhausen, stabsarzt Dr. Kuhn und Oberleutnant Stuhlmann."
Publication Date: 1907 -
Die deutsche Frau in Südwestafrika : ein Beitrag zur Frauenfrage in unseren Kolonien
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A firsthand account of German colonialism written by Clara Brockmann, a colonist who found German Southwest Africa a welcome alternative to the early-twentieth-century metropole's restrictive gender roles for women. For more information about Brockman, see: Wildenthal, L. (1993). “SHE IS THE VICTOR”: Bourgeois Women, Nationalist Identities and the Ideal of the Independent Woman Farmer in German Southwest Africa. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, 33, 68–88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23163040
Publication Date: 1910
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Afrika den Afrikanern! : Aufzeichnungen eines Nama-Häuptlings aus der Zeit der deutschen Eroberung Südwestafrikas 1884 bis 1894
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Abstract from the University of Rostock: "Aus der ehemaligen deutschen Kolonie Südwestafrika, dem heutigen Namibia, stammt dieses Tagebuch des Nama-Kapitains Witbooi, eine der ganz seltenen schriftlichen Quellen afrikanischer Herkunft aus dem 19. Jahrhundert. Witbooi schildert, wie das deutsche Kaiserreich mit dem Beginn der Kolonialisierung 1884 den Grundstein für das noch heute in Namibia herrschende System gelegt hat. Daß Deutsche - anfangs durch Missionare, später mit Waffengewalt - die ursprüngliche Kultur der Schwarzen systematisch zerstörten. Daß sie Stammesauseinandersetzungen schürten, um die Afrikaner abhängig zu machen, ihnen "Schutzverträge" aufnötigten, die sie unter weiße Herrschaft zwangen, ihnen so lange Land raubten, bis sie ihre Existenzgrundlage verloren hatten und ihnen nur der Ausweg in die Sklavenarbeit für die weißen Herren blieb."
Call Number: DT711 .W57 1982ISBN: 3801200701Publication Date: 1982
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The Hendrik Witbooi Papers
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Description from Namibiana Buchdepot: "Hendrik Witbooi was one of the most powerful African leaders at the time when European imperialism began to carve up Africa into colonies. The fact that, moreover, he himself committed these thoughts and convictions to paper in the form of a Journal containing diary entries, minutes of meetings and copies of correspondence with other Namibian rulers and imperial German officers, makes his record quite unique for the whole of Africa. A Nama leader, he wrote in the (colonial) Cape Dutch language which by the end of the 19th century was the lingua franca of political/diplomatic and economic affairs in southern and central Namibia. His papers are here presented in an English translation, to make them accessible to a wide readership. Three types of record left by Hendrik Witbooi have been included in this edition. The most important are his Journals. The first is a large ledger bound in red leather. On 183 pages, it contains copies of his letters, accounts of campaigns, and minutes of meetings with German colonial officials. This Journal was kept by Hendrik Witbooi between 1884 and 1893."
Call Number: DT711 .W58 1990ISBN: 0869762052Publication Date: 1989
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My reminiscences of East Africa
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From the preface: "It has not been possible for me to give an exhaustive account of the operations of the German East African Protective Force. The existing material is insufficient, much has been lost, and even now I am unacquainted with various events, the actors in which have not yet returned home. My own records have for the most part been lost, and I had not the leisure to prepare a detailed description of the campaign in East Africa in addition to my other duties. My account is therefore necessarily incomplete. In the main I must rely upon my memory and on my personal experiences. Errors in detail are unavoidable. But in spite of this, the following account may not be without value, nor perhaps without interest, since it shows how what is up to the present the greatest drama in our colonial history was enacted in the head of him who was destined to conduct the military side of it. I have endeavoured to set down my recollections of East Africa as they actually are, and thus at least to present what is subjectively correct."
Call Number: D576.G3 L6 1987ISBN: 0898391547Publication Date: 1990
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Nama/Namibia : diary and letters of Nama Chief Hendrick Witbooi, 1884-1894
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Call Number: DT715.W57 A35Publication Date: 1984Summary from Namibia Scientific Society: "This book contains information derived from the original diary of Nama Chief Hendrik Wibooi. It is the only known native document of its kind from 19th Century Namibia. It provides information that underwrites the historical depth of current social forms. It also holds much more information about social contracts, kinship obligations, and other much more valuable insights into history as well as present cultural and social norms."
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Die dagboek van Hendrik Witbooi, kaptein van die Witbooi-Hottentotte, 1884-1905 bewerk na die oorspronklike dokumente in die regeringsargief, Windhoek. Met 'n voorwoord deur Gustav Voigts en uitgegee met die medewerking van die Suidwes-Afrika wetenskaplik
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Description from Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Lettern: "Dit bestand biedt, behoudens een aantal hierna te noemen ingrepen, een diplomatische weergave van Die dagboek van Hendrik Witbooi, Kaptein van die Witbooi-Hottentotte 1884-1905 van Hendrik Witbooi in de eerste druk uit 1929. Het oorspronkelijke handschrift dateert van 1884-1893."
Call Number: DT1730 .T73 ZAH-67Publication Date: 1929
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Kolonialpolitik : mein politisches Vermächtnis
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Description from LLMC: "
Kolonialpolitik, mein politisches verma¨chtnis: by W.H. Solf, viii+99p., Berlin, R. Hobbing, 1919. (A brief discussion of various aspects of the colonial regime with some reference to the German model.)"
Publication Date: 1919
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Kriegsnachrichten
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Description from Namibiana Buchdepot: "Kriegsnachrichten. Hrsg. mit Beihilfe des Kommandos der Schutztruppe v. Rudolf Kindt. Erschienen in Tsumeb. Nr. 1 (15. 5. 1915) bis 4 und 6-15 (3. 7. 1915). Jede Nr. besteht aus 4-5 Blättern. Gebunden, die meisten Nrn. lose. Die letzte Nr. erschien am 3.7.15, die Übergabe wurde am 9.7.15 unterzeichnet. Interessant wegen der unmittelbaren Berichte ü. d. Kriegshandlungen in SW-Afrika während des 1. Weltkrieges. Neben diesen Berichten erschienen noch unter der Überschrift »Aus fremden Quellen" Berichte, die in ihrer Widersprüchlichkeit zeigen, wie abgeschnitten von allen Nachrichten die Kolonien waren. Diese Hefte sind selten, weil durch die Kriegswirren u. spätere Besetzung nach unseren Erfahrungen nur wenige Exemplare überdauern konnten. Als Zeitdokument bemerkenswert."
Call Number: D576.G5 K92Publication Date: 1973
Primary Sources: Nazism
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank's remarkable diary has become a world classic--a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the "Secret Annexe" of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short. Praise for The Diary of a Young Girl "A truly remarkable book."--The New York Times "One of the most moving personal documents to come out of World War II."--The Philadelphia Inquirer "There may be no better way to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II than to reread The Diary of a Young Girl, a testament to an indestructible nobility of spirit in the face of pure evil."--Chicago Tribune "The single most compelling personal account of the Holocaust . . . remains astonishing and excruciating."--The New York Times Book Review "How brilliantly Anne Frank captures the self-conscious alienation and naïve self-absorption of adolescence."--Newsday
Call Number: 921 Frank FRAISBN: 0553296981Publication Date: 1993 -
Death Dealer
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By his own admission, SS Kommandant Rudolf H#65533;ss was history's greatest mass murderer, having personally supervised the extermination of approximately two million people, mostly Jews, at the death camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Death Dealer is the first complete translation of H#65533;ss's memoirs into English. These bone-chilling memoirs were written between October 1946 and April 1947. At the suggestion of Professor Sanislaw Batawia, a psychologist, and Professor Jan Shen, the prosecuting attorney for the Polish War Crimes Commission in Warsaw, H#65533;ss wrote a lengthy and detailed description of how the camp developed, his impressions of the various personalities with whom he dealt, and even the extermination of millions in the gas chambers. This written testimony is perhaps the most important document attesting to the Holocaust, because it is the only candid, detailed, and (for the most part) honest description of the Final Solution from a high-ranking SS officer intimately involved in carrying out the plans of Hitler and Himmler. With the cold objectivity of a common hit-man, H#65533;ss chronicles the discovery of the most effective poison gas, and the technical obstacles that often thwarted his aim to kill as efficiently as possible. Staring at the horror without reacting, H#65533;ss allowed conditions at Auschwitz to reduce human beings to walking skeletons - then he labelled them as subhumans fit only to die. Readers will witness H#65533;ss's shallow rationalizations as he tries to balance his deeds with his increasingly disturbed, yet always ineffectual, conscience.
Call Number: D805.P7 H6713 1992ISBN: 0879757140Publication Date: 1992 -
Journal des années noires, 1940-1944
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Summary from Librairie Compagnie: "
Résumé
«17 juin 1940 Voilà, c'est fini. Un vieil homme qui n'a plus même la voix d'un homme nous a signifié à midi trente que cette nuit il avait demandé la paix. Je pense à toute la jeunesse. Il était cruel de la voir partir à la guerre. Mais est-il moins cruel de la contraindre à vivre dans un pays déshonoré ? Je ne croirai jamais que les hommes soient faits pour la guerre. Mais je sais qu'ils ne sont pas non plus faits pour la servitude.» Jean Guéhenno a tenu ici le «journal de nos communes misères» sous l'Occupation, d'un côté en simple témoin, qui n'était pas «dans le secret des dieux», de l'autre en professeur de liberté. S'agit-il d'une lointaine histoire qui ne peut plus rien nous dire ou d'«événements qui resteront jeunes» ? Le livre est dédié à ceux de ses anciens élèves qui se sont engagés à mourir pour que revive la liberté."
Call Number: PQ2613.U18 Z525 1973Publication Date: 1973
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I Will Bear Witness, Volume 2
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Destined to take its place alongside The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's Night as one of the great classics of the Holocaust, I Will Bear Witness is a timeless work of literature, the most eloquent and acute testament to have emerged from Hitler's Germany. Volume Two begins in 1942, the year the Final Solution was formally proposed, and carries us through to the Allied bombing of Dresden and Germany's defeat.
Call Number: DS135.G3315 K54513 2001ISBN: 9780375756979Publication Date: 2001 -
Se questo è un uomo
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Description from Biblioteca Salaborsa Ragazzi: "Primo Levi, reduce da Auschwitz, pubblicò "Se questo è un uomo" nel 1947. Einaudi lo accolse nel 1958 nei "Saggi" e da allora viene continuamente ristampato ed è stato tradotto in tutto il mondo. Testimonianza sconvolgente sull'inferno dei Lager, libro della dignità e dell'abiezione dell'uomo di fronte allo sterminio di massa, "Se questo è un uomo" è un capolavoro letterario di una misura, di una compostezza già classiche. È un'analisi fondamentale della composizione e della storia del Lager, ovvero dell'umiliazione, dell'offesa, della degradazione dell'uomo, prima ancora della sua soppressione nello sterminio."
Call Number: D811 .L65Publication Date: 1967
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A German Officer in Occupied Paris
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Ernst Jünger was one of twentieth-century Germany's most important--and most controversial--writers. Decorated for bravery in World War I and the author of the acclaimed western front memoir Storm of Steel, he frankly depicted war's horrors even as he extolled its glories. As a Wehrmacht captain during World War II, Jünger faithfully kept a journal in occupied Paris and continued to write on the eastern front and in Germany until its defeat--writings that are of major historical and literary significance. Jünger's Paris journals document his Francophile excitement, romantic affairs, and fascination with botany and entomology, alongside mystical and religious ruminations and trenchant observations on the occupation and the politics of collaboration. While working as a mail censor, he led the privileged life of an officer, encountering artists such as Céline, Cocteau, Braque, and Picasso. His notes from the Caucasus depict the chaos after Stalingrad and atrocities on the eastern front. Upon returning to Paris, Jünger observed the French resistance and was close to the German military conspirators who plotted to assassinate Hitler in 1944. After fleeing France, he reunited with his family as Germany's capitulation approached. Both participant and commentator, close to the horrors of history but often distancing himself from them, Jünger turned his life and experiences into a work of art. These wartime journals appear here in English for the first time, giving fresh insights into the quandaries of the twentieth century from the keen pen of a paradoxical observer.
Call Number: PT2619.U43 S813 2019ISBN: 9780231127400Publication Date: 2019 -
The Political Diary of Alfred Rosenberg and the Onset of the Holocaust
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Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum In December 2013, after years of exhaustive search, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum received more than four hundred pages of diary notes written by one of the most prominent Nazis, the Party's chief ideologue and Reich minister for the occupied Soviet territories Alfred Rosenberg. By combining Rosenberg's diary notes with additional key documents and in-depth analysis, this book shows Rosenberg's crucial role in the Nazi regime's anti-Jewish policy. In the second half of 1941 the territory administered by Rosenberg became the region where the mass murder of Jewish men, women, and children first became a systematic pattern. Indeed, months before the emergence of German death camps in Poland, Nazi leaders perceived the occupied Soviet Union as the area where the "final solution of the Jewish question" could be executed on a European scale. Covering almost the entire duration of the Third Reich, these previously inaccessible sources throw new light on the thoughts and actions of the leading men around Hitler during critical junctures that led to war, genocide, and Nazi Germany's final defeat.
ISBN: 9781442251670Publication Date: 2015 -
Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels Online
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"The database The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels Online contains transcriptions of all handwritten documents from 1923 to July 1941, as well as subsequent writings that were dictated up to 1945. This edition, issued by the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, is based on the reproduction of the entire diaries on glass microfiches - commissioned by Goebbels himself - that was discovered by Elke Fröhlich in the former special archive in Moscow. For the first time, the database gives researchers the chance to access the diaries of Joseph Goebbels electronically using the valuable subject index that until now was available in print only"--Aims and Scope.
Publication Date: 2012
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Hans Franks Tagebuch
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Summary of English translation (this version in German): "This collection reproduces the Tagebuch or journal of Dr. Hans Frank (1900-1946), the Governor-General of German-occupied Poland from October 1939 until early 1945."
Publication Date: 1963
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Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939-44
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"Zygmunt Klukowski was a physician, surgeon, and supervisor at Zamosc County Hospital in Szczebrzeszyn, Poland, when the Germans occupied his country. A veteran of World War I, the Russian Civil War, and the Polish-Russian War of 1920-21, he also was respected as a historian. From 1939 to 1944 he kept a detailed secret journal, making entries daily at first and then, near the end of the occupation, even more frequently. His observations range from matter-of-fact anticipation of war in 1939 to information about his own and other Poles' underground activities. As a whole, the entries reveal his growing recognition that the Nazis intended to destroy Polish culture and all those who had been its bearers." "When originally published in Polish, the diary won a major award and soon went into a second edition. Now translated by his son and edited by his grandchildren, Klukowski's diary provides a rare picture of how noncombatants coped with life in German-occupied eastern Poland." "Klukowski chronicled births, deaths, deportations, liquidations, partisan actions, and much more. His devotion to detail resulted in an amazingly long list of victims who fell to the German Occupation forces."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: D802.P62 Z3413 1993ISBN: 0252019601Publication Date: 1993
