When Europeans Contemplated Turning over Africans to Nazis to Save Their Own Skins

by Guest Mon Jul 06, 2015 8:41 am

Susan Pedersen is Professor and James P. Shenton Professor of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University. She specializes in British history, the British Empire, comparative European history, and international history. She is the author of several books, including Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience. Her latest book is The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire (Oxford University Press).

One of the strangest and least remembered encounters in the history of appeasement took place on 3 March 1938, when British Ambassador Sir Nevile Henderson offered Hitler territories in Africa in exchange for peace in Europe. With the aid of a globe, Henderson sketched out the plan: all of Africa below the fifth parallel and above the Zambezi would be put in a common pot and then distributed among all interested European powers, who would govern their portion under common economic and humanitarian norms. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had worked out the proposal himself, Henderson told Hitler. He hoped it would meet Germany’s ambitions and secure a lasting peace in Europe.

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159663