Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 “We Are All Germans; Why Then Ask for Religion?”: Cultural Identity, Language, and Weimar Pluralism, 1928–1932
- 2 “Racial and Social Boundaries between Germans and Jews Are to Be Strictly Drawn”: Dictatorship Building and the Process of Nazifying Language, 1933
- 3 Toward the Eradication of the “Impossible, Untenable Category of ‘German Jews’”: Enforcing and Contesting Racial Difference, 1935–1938
- 4 “The Jewess” Attempted to “Stage a Case on Her Descent”: Linguistic Violence as Part of Genocide, 1941–1945
- 5 “We Are Not Bad Jews, Because We Believe We Are Good and True Germans”: Another Beginning and Persisting Difference, 1945–1948
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Frequency of Key Categories of Germanness and Jewishness
- Bibliography
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
- References
4 - “The Jewess” Attempted to “Stage a Case on Her Descent”: Linguistic Violence as Part of Genocide, 1941–1945
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 “We Are All Germans; Why Then Ask for Religion?”: Cultural Identity, Language, and Weimar Pluralism, 1928–1932
- 2 “Racial and Social Boundaries between Germans and Jews Are to Be Strictly Drawn”: Dictatorship Building and the Process of Nazifying Language, 1933
- 3 Toward the Eradication of the “Impossible, Untenable Category of ‘German Jews’”: Enforcing and Contesting Racial Difference, 1935–1938
- 4 “The Jewess” Attempted to “Stage a Case on Her Descent”: Linguistic Violence as Part of Genocide, 1941–1945
- 5 “We Are Not Bad Jews, Because We Believe We Are Good and True Germans”: Another Beginning and Persisting Difference, 1945–1948
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Frequency of Key Categories of Germanness and Jewishness
- Bibliography
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
- References
Summary
By the early fall of 1941, Nazi Germany had been at war for two years. German military victories in Europe, especially over France in 1940, stunned many observers, not least in the Reich itself. Despite the tens of thousands of German dead, injured, and maimed, these successes significantly contributed to the Nazi dictatorship's stability and propelled Hitler to the height of his popularity. Supported by Italian and Eastern European allies, German armies started their largest invasion of the war in late June 1941. In violation of the 1939 nonaggression treaty, a German-led multinational force of some 3.5 million soldiers attacked the Soviet Union. After a string of early Axis victories in the summer failed to trigger the collapse of Stalin's regime, the invaders managed to renew their offensive in September and push deep into the Ukraine. On the home front, Germans closely followed the events in the press, on the radio, and in the newsreels. As confidential reports of the SS secret service indicate, most did so with anxiety about a prolonged “lightning war” and still in the hope of another victory.
It was in this context of new military success and anticipation of the Soviets' final defeat, as historian Christopher R. Browning argues, that Hitler and the SS leadership “conceived” and “committed” themselves to a “program of mass murder” directed against European and German Jews.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Language of Nazi GenocideLinguistic Violence and the Struggle of Germans of Jewish Ancestry, pp. 160 - 218Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009