From Booklist
An important and unique addition to the literature of Nazi Germany, this lexicon serves as a dictionary of the terminology and specialized vocabulary of Nazi ideology. It covers hundreds of propaganda slogans, military terms, abbreviations and acronyms, euphemisms, and code names. It also defines ranks and offices in the Nazi Party, the German Reich government, and the armed forces. An appendix includes lists of concentration camps, Nazi songs, the Nazi Party Program, the Hitler oaths, and examples of Nazi material included in children's textbooks.
Each entry includes the Nazi-German term, its abbreviation if applicable, the literal English translation, and the definition of the term within its Third Reich context. Cross-references help draw related terms together.
Familiar, if disturbing, terms such as "Juden raus!" (Jews out) and Blut und Boden (blood and soil) illustrate the aggressive and chauvinistic nature of Nazi German, while terms such as "Arbeit macht frei" (work will set you free)--a slogan placed at Auschwitz and other death camps--illustrate the ironic and euphemistic qualities that often made Nazi German a kind of doublespeak.
Although most definitions are brief, some, such as Endlosung der Judenfrage (the "Final Solution of the Jewish question"), contain a more detailed description of how and when the term was used. There are also illuminating and scholarly essays by the authors that detail "The Tradition of Anti-Jewish Language" and "Nazi-Deutsch: An Ideological Language of Exclusion, Domination, and Annihilation."
Because this work provides great detail, it adds a dimension not completely covered in The Penguin Dictionary of the Third Reich (Penguin, 1997) or Dictionary of the Holocaust: Biography, Geography, and Terminology (Greenwood, 1997). This compilation will be a strong research tool for academic, public, and high-school libraries, especially those with students or scholars studying Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, or World War II. RBB
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Review
“Michael and Doerr deserve enormous credit for their exhaustive and meticulous compendium of Nazi vocabulary, including abbreviations and acronyms, military terms and ranks, government and military offices, and--critically important--euphemisms and code names....Any student of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, or WW II should know this book. Essential for all academic libraries.”–Choice
“Karin Doerr and Robert Michael have created a fine book....[T]he lexicon is extensive and will undoubtedly assist students of the Third Reich, World War II, and the Holocaust in their research. College students enrolled in courses on these topics and other nonspecialists stand to benefit the most. This volume gives them the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the terminology of the Third Reich. Attaining knowledge of the Nazis' linguistic code will in turn enable them to make sense of the documentary evidence....[M]ichael's and Doerr's thought-provoking essays raise the issue of continuity and are thus of particular interest to historians.”–German Studies Review
“...surely destined to become a standard volume in all Holocaust libraries.”–The Bulletin of the Center of Holocaust Studies Fall 2002
“An important and unique addition to the literature of Nazi Germany, this lexicon serves as a dictionary of the terminology and specialized vocabulary of Nazi ideology...This compilation will be a strong research tool for academic, public, and high-school libraries, especially those with students or scholars studying Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, or World War II.”–Booklist/RBB
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by Israel Gutman
