Abstract (eng)
The Thesis contains images. This thesis scientifically examines the use of interpreters and translators in the Warsaw ghetto and in the Łódź ghetto. Following a brief overview of the establishment, the administration and the purpose of the ghettos, they are being described as communities of forced coexistence of Jews of different cultural backgrounds and necessarily exposed to the German occupants. This points to a need for linguistic mediation – interpretation and translation – as it has also been confirmed a few years ago for the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In the main body of this thesis, references to interpretation and translation activities in the ghettos, found in archives as well as in publications on the Warsaw ghetto and the Łódź ghetto, are being analysed. In this respect, the documentation on the activities of the Judenräte (jewish councils) and their chairmen in the two ghettos is pivotal. The Jewish councils and their chairmen were placed at the centre between the German occupants and their orders on the one hand and the Jewish inhabitants of the ghettos on the other hand. References to institutionalised interpretations and translations in the Office for Translations and Correspondence (Übersetzungs- und Korrespondenzbüro) of the Jewish council in Warsaw as well as in the Central Secretariat of the Eldest of the Jews (Zentralsekretariat des Judenältesten) in Łódź are being presented and analysed. Using the references as a starting point, the recruitment process as well as the personal background and motivations of the employed interpreters and translators are being reviewed. A particular focus will then be on the exercise of their function in the tense atmosphere between the German occupants and the Jews of the ghettos who were hoping for protection and help by their respective Jewish councils’ activities. Finally, advantages resulting from interpreting and translating for the Jewish councils in Warsaw and Łódź as well as the standing of the employed interpreters and translators are being discussed.