Twentieth century’s first genocide took place between 1904  and 1908 in Namibia (then the German colony of South-West Africa), when 100,000 Herero, 80% of their population, were killed directly or perished in desert bordering their former lands by German occupiers.  Approximately 10,000 Nama also died in that period.  Talks about compensation are underway, but  Herero and Nama are not optimistic.  Ruprecht Polenz, German special envoy, states that the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide cannot be applied retroactively to past genocides.  “Maybe even the United States would ask us now what to do with the Indians? You cannot restart history.  You cannot rewind time.”