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The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried To Eliminate
By Puchner, Martin
- ISBN
- 9781324005919
- Publisher
- Norton
REVIEWS
Library Journal
Reviewed on October 1, 2020 | Arts & Humanities
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 b...Log In or Sign Up to Read More
