This paper will begin by exploring the historical moment when fascist and colonial racism and anti-Semitism was regarded as analogous. It will focus particularly on the early work of Frantz Fanon (under the influence of Aimé Césaire) as an exemplary account of this intertwined history. Fanon will however be contrasted with Césaire as he had a more complex and ambivalent response to these analogies than Césaire.
I will then move on to consider Jean Améry’s strong identification with Fanon (especially late Fanon) in the light of such historical analogies. Améry dismissed Primo Levi (who shared a barracks with Améry in Auschwitz) as a “forgiver” and implicitly contrasted him with Fanon in this regard. Levi however strongly rejected the stereotype of being a “forgiver” and evoked Algeria as an instance of global injustice after the Holocaust. I will explore Levi’s and Améry’s debates on the uses and misuses of counter-violence after the Holocaust through the lens of Fanonian postcolonial history.