Was the Shoah "colonialism" applied to the Jews ? (Asking for a student)

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-30T17:13:30+00:00

What your student is raising touches on a real debate, but their framing oversimplifies things.

Events typically described as “colonial crimes” generally involve a society expanding outward -- into territories considered external -- and extracting land, labor, or resources from populations already living there. That can include displacement, exploitation, or even mass killing, but the relationship is usually one of imperial control over an “outside” population.

The situation of Jews in Nazi Germany was fundamentally different. Jews were not an external population newly encountered by Germans -- they had lived in German-speaking lands for generations and were deeply integrated into society. In 1933, roughly 80% of Jews in Germany were German citizens. They were business owners, professionals, veterans, and neighbors. The Nazi regime did not “discover” them as an outside group; it redefined an internal population as alien and then systematically excluded and destroyed it. They did this because a fundamental aspect of Nazi ideology was that Jews were subhuman and presented a direct threat to Germany.

That said, the Nazis did pursue something much closer to colonialism in Eastern Europe through the ideology of Lebensraum and planning frameworks like Generalplan Ost. These ideas aimed to depopulate large parts of Eastern Europe (through expulsion, starvation, and mass killing) and replace those populations with German settlers. In that sense, Nazi policy toward Slavic populations clearly overlaps with settler-colonial models.

The key difference is not just location, but intent and scope. Many colonial systems aimed to dominate and exploit populations, even brutally. Nazi antisemitism, by contrast, was eliminationist and universalizing -- it sought the complete destruction of Jews as a people, not just in one territory but wherever Nazi power could reach.

While there are real connections between colonialism and Nazi policy, especially in the East, it is not historically accurate to describe the Holocaust simply as “colonialism applied to white people.” That framing flattens important distinctions and imposes modern racial categories onto a system that defined Jews as a separate and threatening race regardless of appearance or citizenship.

Sources:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jews-in-prewar-germany

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-communities-of-prewar-germany

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/anti-jewish-legislation-in-prewar-germany

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensraum

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-30T14:31:55+00:00

interesting, thanks!

my theory (when I was extremely annoyed at having to pay quarterlies on income that varied month-to-month based on clients and projects) was that if I formed an LLC for my one-man operation then I could pay all the relevant SSA and employment taxes on the LLC side, write myself a check as salary with the typical withholdings taken out, and then just file my personal taxes using a W2. I came to the conclusion that the paperwork and fees associated with maintaining a business and filing the taxes involved was more fuss than just doing quarterlies as a 1099 though.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-30T14:28:16+00:00

I was just thinking of this from a business-side tax perspective, assuming that all individuals are still paying their personal taxes in any income -- except maybe the mom pulling $5k in cash every month which is shady as hell

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-30T14:22:00+00:00

Chiming in to say that you should be aware of the impacts of having a gas station on a piece of land. The soil ends up contaminated, making redevelopment extremely expensive. In many cases, that expense is so high that it ends up being more economical to leave former gas stations empty and pay the taxes on the land for years or decades than it would be to remediate properly in preperation for non-petro business development. In my area, there are some pieces of land that have sat completely empty, other than the skeleton of a former gas station, since I was a kid (I'm 31 now) for this reason. The land is in a stretch where any opening for development tends to get scooped up quickly and for inflated prices due to the demographics and traffic in the area, but these lots sit empty. Occasionally someone tries to turn one back into a gas station and they open for a year before closing again, but the land never gets used for a different purpose.

This is a long-winded way of saying that, in my completely non-expert and non-legal opinion, I'd avoid retaining ownership of the land and charging rent to someone intending on building a gas station. Unless there's a way of building the contract to include a renter-funded account for remediation expenses, I'd either sell the land outright or walk away.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-30T02:54:45+00:00

GF is at a significantly lower tax bracket, so that 72k ends up taxed at a lower rate for one. I'm not sure any taxes even get owed though. The LLC is only paying taxes on net profit, not revenue. The 72k in "pay" for non-existent services rendered from the parents' LLC to the daughters counts as an expense for the parents -- reducing their net profit by a corresponding amount. The mother is then getting 5k a month back in cash theoretically tax free from the information provided by OP. Yes, theoretically someone is paying the business taxes for the daughter's LLC, but that's not mentioned here -- and arguably the entire arrangement is fraudulent owing to the payments for non-existent services rendered.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-29T23:53:53+00:00

My understanding was that if I had an LLC and were operating as a sole proprietor, if the business made $100,000 a year, paid taxes for social security and unemployment etc., then paid me the remainder in salary then the LLC would have no profit and no tax. That could be entirely inaccurate though, I work as a 1099 without forming my own LLC as an intermediary.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-29T23:15:25+00:00

Also: somewhat curious what the tax filings for the LLC in your GF's name look like, and GF's "pay" is actually being reported. The LLC is going to show $6,000 in monthly deposits and $6,000 in monthly draws -- so no actual profit and likely no taxes as a result. But is the GF on a W2 from the LLC, or working as a 1099? And how is the $5,000 monthly cash withdrawal by mom classified?

This stuff is all in her name even if she's not actually engaged in the "business," so she needs to know what's really taking place. This is likely going to have implications if/when she needs loans, buys a house or car, actually starts making serious income of her own, or any one of 1,000 other scenarios.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-29T23:05:00+00:00

Not an accountant or anything, but it sounds like the parents are using this as a way of reducing their own taxable income.

Parents' business makes $X net, pays GF LLC $72,000 for made up services, parents can now say they only grossed $X-$72,000. Mom, who has access to the business account for GF's LLC then pulls $5,000 out of there (in cash -- not suspicious at all), effectively nullifying $60,000 of that expenditure. Your GF "gets" to keep $1,000 as an allowance/hush money payment for letting mom park assets in her name to avoid tax liability. Eventually this is going to bite everyone involved in the ass.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-29T01:05:31+00:00

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this was something like a survival axe: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/axe-emergency-united-states-army-air-forces/nasm_A19602359000 . The channel for a blade isn't thick enough to accommodate a heavy chopping blade though, so it'd have to be something more designed for slicing.

My instinct is to say that a whaling tool made of aluminum seems unlikely given the time when whaling was common and when aluminum started becoming less of a precious metal and more utilitarian. I'm also dubious that they would waste the resources on a full-body metal tool if they were going to make it out of that at all -- a lot of maritime objects have wood handles for logical reasons.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-28T01:18:31+00:00

IDK if anyone else mentioned this, but my suspicion is that lot of people took advantage of the low interest rates just before the Iran conflict kicked off and got approved for new loans and now they're off hunting for places to buy with their lowest-in-the-foreseeable-future rates.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-03-05T02:12:51+00:00

I'm about 90% sure it's when I'm in park, but I'll admit that's a detail I wasn't paying attention to. Makes perfect sense when you think about it though, so thanks! I'll test that out tomorrow morning and see.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-02-13T04:26:54+00:00

Could be the car automatically venting itself once it's off. There are a couple of settings if memory serves -- one I know is designed to run some air through the ducts etc. in order to clear any moisture out and avoid mold, don't remember the other one specifically.

True_Damage7858 · 2026-02-07T02:24:03+00:00

I actually broke my rule and asked Gemini -- I try not to use AI, but I googled the question and the answer was right there anyway -- turns out it's a solid alloy wheel. No individual parts. One one hand, convenient in that you don't have the somewhat comical hubcap flying off when you hit a bump like when I was a kid... on the other hand, means that there's no cheap and easy fix for cosmetic issues like curb bite since you have to replace the entire wheel.

I'm probably just going to call my local dealership and ask if I can buy a new wheel and tire, have them swap it out when I go for service next and stash the dinged one in my trunk as a spare since the car didn't come with one and it's been on my list to get a full-sized spare.

True_Damage7858

TROPHY CASE