Historians divide over the question of how far “classic” European colonial experience in overseas empires provided the model for the Nazi empire in eastern Europe. Missing from arguments on either side of the debate have been the colonialists themselves. The Ukraine Project to enlist Dutch plantation companies for occupied Ukraine shows what happened when efforts were made to transfer traditional colonial expertise into the Nazi East. From the perspective of the project's proponents, there was indeed continuity between the two imperialisms. However, the company at the center of the project, the Deli Maatschappij, the ruling and tone-setting firm on Sumatra, saw no connection with its East Indies history and spurned all efforts to take it into Ukraine. Thus the Ukraine Project, despite its short-lived and failed history, complicates arguments from both perspectives and offers a trans-imperial history of a different sort than we are accustomed to encountering.

历史学家对欧洲帝国在海外帝国中的“经典”殖民经验为东欧纳粹帝国提供了何种模式的问题存在分歧。辩论两边的争论都缺少殖民主义者自己。吸引荷兰种植园公司进入被占领的乌克兰的乌克兰项目表明，在努力将传统殖民地专业知识转移到纳粹东部时发生了什么。从项目支持者的角度来看，两种帝国主义之间确实存在连续性。但是，位于项目中心的公司，苏门答腊的统治和基调公司Deli Maatschappij与其东印度的历史没有任何联系，并竭尽全力将其带入乌克兰。因此，乌克兰项目尽管历史短暂且失败，