This book provides readers with an increased understanding of and
sensitivity to the many powerful ways in which personal names are
used by both perpetrators and victims during wartime. Whether to
declare allegiance or seek refuge, names are routinely used to
survive under life-threatening conditions. To illustrate this
point, this book concentrates on one of the most terrifying and yet
fascinating periods of modern history: the Holocaust. More
specifically, this book will examine the different ways in which
personal names were used by Nationalist Socialists and targeted
victims of their genocidal ideology. Although there are many
excellent scientific and popular works which have dealt with the
Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, to my knowledge, there are none
which have examined the importance of naming during this period.
This oversight is significant when one considers the incredible
importance of personal names during this time. For example, many
people are aware of the fact that Jewish residents were forced to
wear a yellow star (the Star of David) on their outermost apparel
to distinguish them from the Aryan population. It is also generally
known, albeit much less so, that as of 1938, all Jewish citizens
living within Nazi German or one of its occupied territories were
also required to have either the word "Jewish" or the letter "J"
stamped in their passports. However, comparatively few people
realize is that before those regulations were implemented, Nazi
leaders had decreed that all Jewish women and men must add the
names 'Sara' and 'Israel' respectively to their given names. Once
the deportations began, the perfidious logic behind this naming
(onomastic) legislation became clear: it made it that much easier
to pinpoint Jewish residents on official governmental listings
(e.g. housing registries, voting rosters, pay rolls, labor union
registers, bank accounts, school, university, military, and
hospital records, etc.). Once the Jewish residents were identified,
new lists of names were drawn up for people designated for
relocation to a deportation center; relocation to labour camp; or
transportation to an extermination center. By using first-hand
accounts of Holocaust survivors, the direct descendants of Nazi war
criminals, and chilling cases extracted from international and
national archival records, this book presents a harrowing depiction
of the way personal names were used during the Third Reich to
systematically murder millions to achieve Hitler's dream of a
society devoid of cultural diversity. Importantly, the practice of
using personal names and naming to identify victims is not an
historical anomaly of World War II but is a widespread
sociolinguistic practice which has been followed in modern acts of
genocide as well. From Rwanda to Bosnia, Berlin to Washington, when
normal governmental controls are abridged and ethical boundaries
designed to protect the human rights and liberties are violated,
very quickly something as simple as a person's name can be used to
determine who lives and who dies.
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