Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps

Michaela Wolf is Associate Professor in the Department of Translation Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. Having published extensively in translation studies, her previous books include Framing the Interpreter (with Anxo Fernández Ocampo, 2014) and The Habsburg Monarchy’s Many-Languaged Soul: Translating and Interpreting, 1848-1918 (2015). Between 2008-2012 she was co-editor of the journal Translation Studies (Routledge).

• Contents List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsIntroduction Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps: Challenging the “Order of Terror”?Michaela Wolf, University of Graz, AustriaPART 1 The Concentration Camp UniverseChapter 1 The Camp Society: Approaches to Social Structure and Ordinary Life in Nazi Concentration CampsAlexander Prenninger, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Historical Social Research, AustriaChapter 2 Translanguagers and the Concentrationary UniverseDavid Gramling, University of Arizona, USAPART 2 Language Diversity in the CampsChapter 3 Linguistic Terror in Nazi Concentration Camps: Lucien and Gilbert – Portraits of Two “Interpreters”Heidi Aschenberg, University of Tübingen, GermanyChapter 4 Lagersprache through the Lens of Primo Levi’s Essay on Translation: “Tradurre ed essere tradotti”Zaia Alexander, Berlin, GermanyChapter 5 On Translating and Being TranslatedPrimo LeviPART 3 Interpreting in the CampsChapter 6 “Someone whispered the translation in 100 languages, like a Babel…”: Interpreting in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp Michaela Wolf, University of Graz, AustriaChapter 7 Interpreters in the Concentration Camp of Majdanek (1941–1944)Malgorzata Tryuk, University of Warsaw, PolandChapter 8 “Deaf Holocaust”: Deaf Jews and their “True” Communication in Nazi Concentration CampsMark Zaurov, University of Hamburg, GermanyPART 4 Translating the Legacy of the HolocaustChapter 9 “L’écrit reste. L’écrit est une trace, tandis que les paroles s’envolent”: On the Hermeneutics of Holocaust Survivor MemoirsPeter Kuon, University of Salzburg, AustriaChapter 10 The Ambiguous Task of the Interpreter in Lanzmann’s Films Shoah and Sobibor: Between the Director and the Survivors of the Camps and Ghettos Francine Kaufmann, Bar Ilan University, IsraelChapter 11 The Illusion of “Authenticity”: The Translation of Video Testimonies with Survivors of National Socialist Terror for Use in Educational WorkSylvia Degen, University of Aberystwyth, WalesPART 5 Limits of PermeabilityChapter 12 Interpreters in Soviet Prisoner-Of-War Camps: Beyond the “Unsayable”?Viktor Milosevic, University of Graz, AustriaChapter 13 Interpreting under Pressure: From Collaboration to ResistancePiotr Kuhiwczak, British Red CrossIndex

Interpreting in Nazi Concentration Camps is an outstanding contribution to the research of the role of interpreting and interpreters in situations of extreme violence. Based on a thorough examination of revealing primary sources... In sum, this book provides a much-needed study of the complex decisions interpreters have to make in situations of extreme pressure where survival is the ultimate—if not the only—concern.