The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate

by Martin Puchner

Overview

Tracking an underground language and the outcasts who depended on it for their survival becomes "a deeply personal project, one that probes the meaning of language and family, inheritance and debt" (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times Book Review).

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393868289
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	677,212
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution-builder in the arts and humanities. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Language Games 1

Chapter 1 Camouflage Names 9

Chapter 2 The Book of Vagrants 26

Chapter 3 A Picture Comes into View 38

Chapter 4 The Rotwelsch Inheritance 54

Chapter 5 The King of the Tramps 76

Chapter 6 The Farmer and the Judge 97

Chapter 7 An Attic in Prague 119

Chapter 8 When Jesus Spoke Rotwelsch 134

Chapter 9 Igpay Atinlay for Adults 149

Chapter 10 The Story of an Archivist 160

Chapter 11 Judgment at Hikels-Mokum 177

Chapter 12 Error-Spangled Banner 196

Chapter 13 Your Grandfather Would Have Been Proud of You 212

Chapter 14 Rotwelsch in America 222

Chapter 15 The Laughter of a Yenish Chief 237

Acknowledgments 247

Notes 251

Illustration Credits 261

Index 263

Editorial Reviews

"The Language of Thieves is a revelation: in telling the story of an underground language, Martin Puchner exposes a hidden corner of Europe’s—and his own family’s—surprising past. Entirely original, infectiously curious, by turns playful and poignant, it offers at once a fresh, fascinating insight into history and a thoughtful meditation on identity and belonging. The book sings with Puchner’s pleasure in the power of words to move, delight, deceive, and connect us."

Maya Jasanoff

"Martin Puchner’s The Language of Thieves is at its core a gripping autobiography dealing with the actions of non-Jewish Germans, both victims and perpetrators, in the Third Reich and their legacy to their children and—in Puchner’s case—their grandchildren. A brilliantly written, compelling read about language, displacement, and how the past forms all of us today."

Sander L. Gilman

…a deeply personal project, one that probes the meaning of language and family, inheritance and debt…Puchner's enthusiasm…inspires illuminating detours into subjects like the history of Esperanto and the birth of simultaneous interpretation at the Nuremberg trials.

The New York Times Book Review - Corinna da Fonsesca-Wollheim

★ 07/27/2020

Puchner (The Written World), a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard, brilliantly integrates the personal and the professional in this intriguing account of his quest to learn as much as possible about Rotwelsch, a mash-up of German, Yiddish, and Hebrew spoken by itinerant people in Europe since the Middle Ages. Puchner’s interest in the subject goes back to his childhood in Nuremberg, Germany, in the 1970s, where his uncle Günter was an authority on Rotwelsch and the Puchner family adopted it as a secret code. Following Gunter’s death, the family stopped using Rotwelsch, but the practice influenced Puchner’s decision to study linguistics. In his dogged research into the history of Rotwelsch and his family’s connection to it, Puchner discovered that 16th-century Protestant theologian Martin Luther viewed the language as a link between three groups he despised (Jews, foreigner beggars, and vagrants), and that Puchner’s paternal grandfather, a historian of names, had sought to advise the Nazis on how to distinguish between Jews with German-sounding names and Germans whose names sounded Jewish. Puchner concludes that the persistence of Rotwelsch, despite centuries of determined opposition, is a testament “to the endurance of generations of ultimate outcasts.” Rich with insight and vivid character sketches, this moving and well-informed cultural history deserves a wide readership. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"A deeply personal project, one that probes the meaning of language and family, inheritance and debt...[Puchner’s enthusiasm] inspires illuminating detours into subjects like the history of Esperanto and the birth of simultaneous interpretation at the Nuremberg trials. What endures is his fascination with the resourcefulness and resilience of generations of travelers, like the ones who came to his childhood home in Nuremberg, drawn by a hidden zinken."

Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim

10/01/2020

Puchner (English, comparative literature, Harvard Univ.; The Written World) reveals the power of archives and language in preserving the cultural record in this newest work. As a child growing up in Germany, the author heard Rotwelsch, a bewildering hybrid of Hebrew and German often spoken by persons of Jewish descent. Puchner's uncle Günter amassed a significant personal Rotwelsch archive, perhaps as "atonement for a regime that had tried to eliminate the language and its speakers." Tracing back further, Puchner's grandfather Karl was an archivist and National Socialist Party Member. The Nazi Party was grappling with racial identification as many Jewish families held German names. Puchner explains how Karl believed targeting Rotwelsch speakers was an additional identifying tool for the Nazi Party. What innocently began as family research turned into an uncomfortable confrontation with past secrets. Puchner thoroughly documents Rotwelsch's history and its connections to Hebrew, Yiddish, and German. His expertise and dedication to a language all but eliminated by World War II is impressive, with his family's work almost exclusively documenting this underresearched language. Each chapter ends with drawn zinken, a pictographic component of Rotwelsch, and an assortment of vocabulary. VERDICT A puzzling family mystery uncovers a forgotten language and its ties to Nazi Germany in this probing literary history that will attract linguistics enthusiasts.—Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

Library Journal

Language impacts the world in so many ways, and in this audiobook listeners will discover how a secret language known as Rotwelsch led author Martin Puchner to discover his sordid family history. In audio, a book about language can be more powerful than its printed version, but will succeed only when, as here, the narrator delivers the words with a casual confidence that lends credibility to every word. Whether speaking Yiddish, Rotwelsch, or another language, Qarie Marshall reads flawlessly. The audiobook, complex yet never boring, raises troubling issues, including the Nazi allegiance of close family members. Marshall’s delivery reflects the work well. His style is direct, yet he excels in those moments that reveal Puchner’s emotional turmoil, such as when he discovers family secrets best left hidden. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile

2020-07-28
An American professor discovers that his grandfather was a Nazi as well as a scholar with an interesting specialty.

Born in Nuremberg and now a professor of English at Harvard, Puchner made his discovery 30 years ago while studying at the Widener Library. Recalling that his German grandfather had been an archivist specializing in the history of names, he searched the card catalog for his papers and found a trove, including a 1934 article, “Family Names as Racial Markers,” which discussed Jewish names throughout history. Originally based on the Bible, they soon reflected non-Hebrew sources. Arriving in Germany in the Middle Ages, Jews often adopted German names, usually related to a location. Few chose Nuremberg, which forbade their settlement, but Frankfurter became a common Jewish name. A crucial change came after the 18th century, when nations granted Jews equal rights—“the worst mistake in history,” according to Puchner’s grandfather. En masse, Jews adopted German names, but since German Christians often chose biblical names, it became difficult to tell them apart. The author’s grandfather believed that because Jews sought to blend in to further their nefarious plans, the Reich should consult experts like himself to distinguish Jewish-sounding German names from German-sounding Jewish names. 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. He cannot resist exploring the secret languages used by vagrants and criminals. From childhood, he was fascinated by Rotwelsch, a popular argot throughout Europe dating from the Middle Ages that contained terms from Hebrew, Yiddish, Latin, and Romani. It was regularly denounced by establishment figures, from Martin Luther to Puchner’s grandfather. The author also devotes long sections to Rotwelsch’s history, social role, and vocabulary.

A compelling mixture of memoir and philology.

Kirkus Reviews