Interpreting in Nazi concentration camps / edited by Michaela Wolf ; with an essay by Primo Levi.

"This significant new study is concerned with the role of interpreting in Nazi concentration camps, where prisoners were of 30 to 40 different nationalities. With German as the only official language in the lager, communication was vital to the prisoners' survival. While in the last few decades there has been extensive research on the language used by the camp inmates, investigation into the mediating role of interpreters between SS guards and prisoners on the one hand, and among inmates on the other, has been almost nonexistent. On the basis of Primo Levi's considerations on communication in the Nazi concentrationary system, this book investigates the ambivalent role of interpreting in the camps. One of the central questions is what the role of interpreting was in the wider context of shaping life in concentration camps. And in what way did the knowledge of languages, and accordingly, certain communication skills, contribute to the survival of concentration camp inmates and of the interpreting person? The main sources under investigation are both archive materials and survivors' memoirs and testimonials in various languages. On a different level, Translation in Nazi Concentration Camps also asks in what way the study of communication in concentration camps enhances our understanding of the ambiguous role of interpreting in more general terms. And in what way does the study of interpreting in concentration camps shape an interpreting concept which can help us to better understand the violent nature of interpreting in contexts other than the Holocaust? "-- Provided by publisher.

"Innovative anthology that brings together leading figures in both translation studies and Holocaust studies to explore the role of interpreting in shaping life in Nazi concentration camps and the encompassing ethical questions that are raised about interpreting in general"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Machine generated contents note: pt. 1 Concentration Camp Universe -- 1. Camp Society: Approaches to Social Structure and Ordinary Life in Nazi Concentration Camps / Alexander Prenninger -- 2. Translanguagers and the Concentrationary Universe / David Gramling -- pt. 2 Language Diversity in the Camps -- 3. Linguistic Terror in Nazi Concentration Camps: Lucien and Gilbert -- Portraits of Two "Interpreters" / Heidi Aschenberg -- 4. Lagersprache through the Lens of Primo Levi's Essay on Translation: "Tradurre ed essere tradotti" / Zaia Alexander -- 5. On Translating and Being Translated / Primo Levi -- pt. 3 Interpreting in the Camps -- 6. "Someone whispered the translation in 100 languages, like a Babel ... ": Interpreting in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp / Michaela Wolf -- 7. Interpreters in the Concentration Camp of Majdanek (1941 -- 1944) / Malgorzata Tryuk -- 8. "Deaf Holocaust": Deaf Jews and Their "True" Communication in the Nazi Concentration Camps / Mark Zaurov -- pt. 4 Translating the Legacy of the Holocaust -- 9. "L'ecrit reste. L'ecrit est une trace, tandis que les paroles s' envolent": On the Hermeneutics of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs / Peter Kuon -- 10. Ambiguous Task of the Interpreter in Lanzmann's Films Shoah and Sobibor: Between the Director and Survivors of the Camps and Ghettos / Francine Kaufmann -- 11. Illusion of "Authenticity": The Translation of Video Testimonies with Survivors of National Socialist Terror for Use in Educational Work / Sylvia Degen -- pt. 5 Limits of Permeability -- 12. Interpreters in Soviet Prisoner of War Camps: Beyond the "Unsayable"? / Viktor Milosevic -- 13. Interpreting under Pressure: From Collaboration to Resistance / Piotr Kuhiwczak.

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