Language of Nazi concentration camps

Language of Nazi concentration camps is a common stratum created in various languages of inmates of Nazi concentration camps that described the notions unique to life in the camps and served as lingua franca.

One part of the Nazi camp slang was German language terminology for people, things and events in the camps, where many ordinary German words acquired specific meanings and associations. Another was ad hoc slang based on the various native languages of inmates from different countries.

See also

• Glossary of Nazi Germany
• LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii – Book by Victor Klemperer

Further reading

• Ariane Santerre, “Dialogisme et Lagerszpracha”, in La littérature inouïe: Témoigner des camps dans l'après-guerre, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2022, pp. 105-150, ISBN 978-2-7535-8293-4
• Rocco Marzulli, Italiani nei lager. Linguaggio, potere, resistenza, Milieu, Milano 2019, ISBN 978-88-31977-11-1
• Rocco Marzulli, La lingua dei lager. Parole e memoria dei deportati italiani, Introduzione di Massimo Castoldi. Con tre saggi di Giovanna Massariello Merzagora, Donzelli, Roma 2017, ISBN 9788868436254
• Nicole Warmbold, Lagersprache. Zur Sprache der Opfer in den Konzentrationslagern Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Buchenwald, Verlag Hempen, 2009, ISBN 9783934106628
• Daniela Accadia, La lingua nei campi nazisti della morte, in I sentieri della ricerca. Rivista di storia contemporanea, 9-10, EDIZIONI CENTRO STUDI “PIERO GINOCCHI” CRODO, 2009
• Wolf Oschlies, Sprache in nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager. Theorie und Empirie der „Lagerszpracha“. Erstellt: 6. November 2004 | Aktualisiert: 15. Juni 2017
• Donatella Chiapponi, La lingua nei lager nazisti, Carocci editore, 2004, ISBN 978-8843030156
• Danuta Wesołowska, Wörter aus der Hölle. Die «lagerszpracha» der Häftlinge von Auschwitz, Impuls, Krakóv 1998
• Primo Levi, I sommersi e i salvati, Einaudi, Torino 1986
• Oliver Lustig, Dicționar de lagăr, Cartea Românească, 1982
• Aldo Enzi, Il lessico della violenza nella Germania nazista, Patron, Bologna 1971
• Andrea Devoto, Il linguaggio del 'Lager': annotazioni psicologiche, in Il Movimento di Liberazione in Italia, N° 65, 1961
• Victor Klemperer, LTI - Notizbuch eines Philologen, Berlin, 1947
• Boris Ottokar Unbegaun, Les argots slaves des camps de concentration, in Mélanges 1945, V, Études linguistiques, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1947, pp. 177-191
• Georges Straka, L'argot tchèque du camp de Buchenwald, in Revue des études slaves, tome 22, fascicule 1–4, 1946, pp. 105–116.
• Marcel Cressot, Le parler des déportés français du camp de Neuengamme, in le français moderne, N° 1, janvier 1946, pp.11-17
• L'argot de déportés en Allemagne, in le français moderne, N° 1, janvier 1946, pp. 165-173
• Amsler, "Organisme" au camp de Dachau, in le français moderne, N° 3–4, juillet-octobre 1945, p. 248

External links

• Concentration Camp Dictionary (Retrieved March 27, 2011), by Oliver Lustig, Birkenau-Auschwitz and Dachau Holocaust Survivor