Yiddish and Rotwelsch, Nazi France
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Discovering his family's Nazi links is what happened to historian Martin Puchner when he set out to explore the use of a secret language by Jewish people and other travellers in middle Europe. He joins author and language expert Michael Rosen for a conversation with Matthew Sweet about Yiddish, Rotwelsch, codes and graffiti. Plus as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day hearing about new research into the takeover of railways and civic buildings in occupied France from historians Ludivine Broch and Stephanie Hesz-Wood.
Martin Puchner's book is called The Language of Thieves. He teaches English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University Michael Rosen is the author of books including On the Move: Poems about Migration; The Missing - The True Story of My Family in World War II; Mr Mensh and So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir. Ludivine Broch teaches at the University of Westminster and is an Associate Fellow of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and has written Ordinary Workers, Vichy and the Holocaust. Stephanie Hesz-Wood is researching a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London called A Spatial History of Drancy: Architecture, Appropriation and Memory
You can hear Ludivine talking to Matthew Sweet about the Gratitude Train - a project of thanks given by ordinary people in France to America for their part in World War II in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hwz9 A discussion about Jewish Identity in 2020 featuring guests at last year's Jewish Book Week Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman and Jonathan Freedland https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fwqd A discussion about Remembering Auschwitz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dq00 Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeevor from the Pears Institute discussing stereotypes and also anti-Semitism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050d2 Past programmes for Holocaust Memorial Day hearing from the late David Cesarani, Richard J Evans and Jane Caplan https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0506lp0 Monica Bohm Duchen, Daniel Snowman and Martin Goodman on Art and Refugees from Nazi Germany https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027m6
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:37.2 | Hello, this is a message to say that this is the Arts and Ideas podcast with me, Matthew Sweet. |
| 0:43.4 | But if we were familiar with the language of Rotvelch, then I'd say it differently. |
| 0:48.5 | But the content could be pretty dark. |
| 0:51.0 | Stick around and you'll find out why. |
| 0:54.1 | With the BBC Sounds app, you'll find out why. |
| 0:59.0 | With the BBC Sounds app, you can find some of your favorite shows with ease. |
| 1:04.2 | For example, you can tap the search button at the bottom right and type in Classical Fix. |
| 1:11.0 | This will take you straight to the podcast where we aim to open up the incredible world of classical music to everyone. |
| 1:15.2 | Featuring some famous faces, including the comedian James Acaster. |
| 1:18.3 | Listen to it, it feels like all the grimes coming off you. |
| 1:20.1 | The musician, Nadine Shah. |
| 1:22.1 | Right now I'm on some adventure. |
| 1:23.4 | And many more. |
| 1:28.7 | Download the BBC Sounds app to start listening to Classical Fix and many other podcasts. |
| 1:34.9 | The Holocaust has a history. That history now also has a history. |
| 1:43.2 | Over seven decades of attempts to articulate, explain and contextualise the industrial murder of 6 million people. |
| 1:46.5 | It's a history composed of silence and absence, |
| 1:52.8 | as well as text and testimony, all those Jewish octogenarians who should still be here and should be grandparents. The pauses taken by the interviewees include Lansman's great documentary |
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