Kurt Vonnegut and the Hottentots

by Bluegutsoup

In Vonnegut's novel Mother Night, the protagonist (who is a nazi war criminal in hiding) is badly beaten and wakes up in a neo Nazi compound. Looking around his room he sees old flags with swastikas and a framed picture of Hitler and remarks that he has been 'captured by Hottentots'. What does this South African tribe have to do with the Nazis? Or is this just a literary device im misinterpreting?

bettinafairchild

He was insulting his captors by likening then to a group that Nazis would regard as sub-human.