The Yiddish slang of the Holocaust

Kaplan, Yisrael. Dos Folks-Moyl in Natsi-Klem. Reydenischn in Geto un Katset.

€ 850.00

First edition of this imporant collection of Yiddish slang expressions from ghettos and concentration camps ("Expression under Nazi Persecution: Sayings from the Ghettos and Camps"). "Invaluable" (Roskies, p. 77).

Israel Kaplan (1902-2003) called his collection of expressions born in the ghettos and concentration camps a piece of newly created Jewish folklore. During his odyssey through three ghettos and four concentration camps, the historian and journalist began to record code words, slogans, and figures of speech. He published an initial selection in the journal he edited, "Fun letstn Churban". The expanded collection appeared in book form in 1949. In the introduction Kaplan called on DPs to collect and document for posterity not only the material, but also the linguistic legacies of the Nazi dictatorship.

Reprints appeared in 1982 and 1987; an English edition was published in Yad Vashem in 2018 as "The Jewish Voice in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps: Verbal Expression Under Nazi Occupation".