Indigenous leaders recognized Nazi persecution as familiar before Western governments did

Evidence

Many people whose cultures, lands, and bodies had been targeted in these ways recognized the logic behind Hitler’s political project precisely because it was familiar. After Kristallnacht in 1938, for instance, a delegation from the Australian Aborigines League wrote a protest letter condemning “the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi Government of Germany” and, in a little-known historical chapter, hand-delivered it to the German consulate in Melbourne (the consulate refused to accept it). This was well before Western governments were willing to confront Hitler; yet these Indigenous leaders, who were still fighting for basic rights of their own, clearly saw the gravity of the threat. The Nazis’ industrial killing was new, and the Jewish case is different. But so is every case. And some things are all too similar. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 894

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Milgram/psychology of pattern recognition, and complements the reader’s earlier work on how oppressed groups see power structures clearly (standpoint).
• SHARE: The 1938 Australian Aborigines League protest letter to the German consulate — a specific unnamed historical person (Lindqvist-adjacent history fan) would love this.