Hi Annika, I can understand your sensitivity around the word “holocaust” but it does have a general meaning, this is taken from the Cambridge Dictionary,

“a very large amount of destruction, especially by fire or heat, or the killing of very large numbers of people:”

E.g. A nuclear holocaust (= destruction caused by nuclear weapons) would leave few survivors.

The term “the Holocaust” has a very specific meaning relating to the genocide carried out by the Nazis as you state.

I don’t believe that Rebecca is comparing one with the other, however the impact on the Black population of Namibia is no less significant and time does not lessen its impact.

One area of sensitivity that we should be very cautious of, is attributing the term holocaust only to genocide carried out by Germany, this would be unfair.

Thank you for raising the question.