DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.6| FRAUWALLNER: IN//OUT OF FRAME_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 31 non-forced labourers, women were often required to do the most physically demanding jobs at night. 9 The Death Register for Natives sheds light on the harsh conditions of these camps, recording the de­aths of all non-white men, women, and children in Swakopmund between 27 July 1905 and 27 Februa­ry 1906. A majority of the deceased were“adult” Herero women over twelve years of age. Many likely perished due to the harsh conditions and forced la­bour. Within just six months, 342 Herero women died in Swakopmund’s concentration camps. Some might have worked on the construction of the Otavi railway as forced labourers for the Arthur Koppel AG. 10 This brutal campaign and the systematic extermi­nation of the Herero by the German colonial troops marked the beginning of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The genocide against the Herero and the Nama groups continued in the post-war ye­ars. The casualties were devastating, and the impact of this genocide on subsequent generations of the affected communities is still felt today. The atrocities committed during the German-Namibian War raise important questions about colonial violence, oppres­sion, and the responsibility of the perpetrators’ de­scendants. 11 Herero women warriors: a by­product of war propaganda? According to Krüger, the alleged participation of Herero women in battle was a result of German war propaganda. Krüger finds it unlikely that women ac­tively fought with weapons. However, they were pre­sent on the battlefield, directly behind the male figh­ters, cheering them on with shouts and songs. This visible support from the women led soldiers and sett­lers to perceive Herero women as instigators of war. 12 Staging them for photographs in such a manner and attributing them a role through the title of the photo­graph is an expression of an idea rooted in colonial war propaganda, especially the notion of“women as castrating beasts” 13 . Soldiers of the Schutztruppe were tasked with rounding up and capturing women and children, who they saw as“merely defenceless victims of the war.” 14 This juxtaposition suggests that the role of local women in the German-Nami­bian War was multifaceted and not entirely clear. 15 This becomes evident through the portrayal of He­rero women in various visual sources, like the photo­graphs included in the photo album by Nath and, by contrasting, in their seeming invisibility in the Otavi railway remembrance album. Most of the twenty-eight images referencing Ger­man South West Africa in Nath’s album are depic­tions of landmarks and locals. However, there are a few photographs which clearly refer to the war: Her­ero-Bambusen 16 showing ten young Black men(pos­sibly boys) kneeling in a line mimicking the shooting of a rifle; two other photographs referencing the war, entitled Verbrecher (“criminal[s]”), confront the vie­wer with the hanging of(in total) nine Black people. These violent motifs disrupt the overall picture of a 9 Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire, 87–88(see n. 8). 10 in both cases: Lyon, Namibian Labor Empire, 112–113(see n. 8). 11 L. Förster,“From‘General Field Marshal’ to‘Miss Genocide’: The Reworking of Traumatic Experiences among Herero-Speaking Namibians”, Journal of Material Culture , 13(2008), 175–194: 181–182. 12 G. Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein: Realität, Deutung und Verarbeitung des deutschen Kolonialkriegs in Namibia 1904 bis 1907 (Göttingen, 1999), 116–117. 13 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 116(see n. 12). 14 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein , 117(see n. 12).. 15 Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein , 118(see n. 12).. 16 Africans who served German military personnel as personal attendants(not exclusively) during military operations were referred to as“Bambusen”(pl.). They were not owned as slaves or forced labourers, but the relationship nevertheless seems to have been of an exploitative nature. See Krüger, Kriegsbewältigung und Geschichtsbewusstsein, 93, 101 102(see n. 12).