How singular was the Holocaust?  Historian Juergen Zimmerer sparked a firestorm of controversy in Germany for suggesting continuity between the colonial past and the Holocaust.  Any suggestion that the Holocaust needs to be understood within a broader framework that goes beyond antisemitism and the Nazi era strikes at the heart of the German national memory culture.  Drawing from his recently published edited volume, Germany’s History Wars: Contesting Memory and Identity Today, I had the chance to talk with Juergen Zimmerer about how the singularity idea has contributed to the unlearning of the lessons of the Holocaust.  A conversation with Juergen Zimmerer, renowned scholar of the genocide in German South West Africa, next on the September 1st episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.