Uta posted...
I'll admit I focused on the American part of the Allied system because that's the part i know the best. I'm vaguely aware the other allies had plenty of atrocities of their own, but I cannot speak to them as confidently as I can the American side. I'd be happy for additional info though.
That's fair. Jim Crow and Segregation (America's sins) should be brought up in this context as they were discussed in "fascist circles". Usually though, when discussing what was a prelude/inspiration to Nazi war crimes, usually the focus is on Europe itself though.
And in that context, I first read about the Boer concentration camps as ancillary to the usual focus of atrocities in Africa, which tends to be on the Congo Free State under King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908. The atrocities rightfully got brought up and the international outcry around the annihilation of the natives (numbers are all over the place, with estimates ranging from 1.5 million to 13 million people) eventually forced King Leopold II of Belgium to relinquish control of the Congo Free State to the Belgian government in 1908 (things only got better in "relative" terms mind you). But again, King Leopold II of Belgium was FAR from the only person involved in the colonialization of Africa, and he was actually rather "late to the game". The UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain (and the Ottomans for what its worth) all were involved in colonialization to some capacity which obviously involved atrocities, but none of them got quite the stigma that Belgium seemed to get (and that was mostly when King Leopold II owned it more personally vs when Belgium was given it later on).
When discussing the "historical order" of atrocities that seemed to be a prelude to what the Nazis later did, this is the usual order that often gets mentioned and what a book I read some time ago going over the Belgium situation alluded to in an ancillary sense.
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British Boer concentration camps (Second Boer War; 1899-1902)
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Soviet Gulag Archipelago (started under Lenin in ~1918 via forced labor camps, although accelerated greatly under Stalin who came to power in 1924)
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Nazi Atrocities (The Holocaust most noticeably, from principally 1941 to 1945)
Other inspirations/preludes can be added if you desire (other European attrocities in Africa, although I'm less aware of their details). Just tying it back to the Nuremberg trials though, neither the British or the Soviets got the same level of scorn the Nazis would got and weren't subjected to any trials either.
And lastly regarding the British Boer concentration camps, they were part of a strategy to undermine Boer guerrilla warfare by separating combatants from civilian support (not an intended extermination). Initially intended as refugee camps for displaced families, the policy evolved into a system of forced internment camps following the implementation of a scorched-earth policy. Keep in mind though, the Boers were descendants of Dutch-speaking settlers in Southern Africa (they were white). They were the initial focus of the camps, but eventually additional camps were set up for actual black africans who had nothing to do with the Boers' guerrilla warfare (and somehow only 45 camps were built for Boer internees yet 64 camps were built for Black Africans). This is just another senseless and cruel part of it.