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The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate
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About This Book
Tracking an underground language and the outcasts who depended on it for their survival. Centuries ago in middle Europe, a coded language appeared, scrawled in graffiti and spoken only by people who were "wiz" (in the know). This hybrid language, dubbed Rotwelsch, facilitated survival for people in flight―whether escaping persecution or just down on their luck. It was a language of the road associated with vagabonds, travelers, Jews, and thieves that blended words from Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Romani, Czech, and other European languages and was rich in expressions for police, jail, or experiencing trouble, such as "being in a pickle." This renegade language unsettled those in power, who responded by trying to stamp it out, none more vehemently than the Nazis. As a boy, Martin Puchner learned this secret language from his father and uncle. Only as an adult did he discover, through a poisonous 1930s tract on Jewish names buried in the archives of Harvard's Widener Library, that his own grandfather had been a committed Nazi who despised this "language of thieves." Interweaving family memoir with an adventurous foray into the mysteries of language, Puchner crafts an entirely original narrative. In a language born of migration and survival, he discovers a witty and resourceful spirit of tolerance that remains essential in our volatile present. 28 illustrations
Reviews
"[Puchner] brilliantly integrates the personal and the professional in this intriguing account of his quest to learn as much as possible about Rotwelsch ..."
"...unusual, intriguing ..."
"As a scholar in love with words and language, Puchner gives these priority, so his attention wanders, but the digressions are never less than intriguing."
"While Puchner's enthusiasm sometimes leads him to overstate Rotwelsch's significance — Hitler's Mein Kampf becomes a struggle against the language — it inspires illuminating detours into subjects like the history of Esperanto and the birth of simultaneous interpretation at the Nuremberg trials."
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