The Language of the Third Reich: LTI -- Lingua Tertii Imperii: A… (1947)

A sort of combination memoir and philology book. The author undertakes a serious study of language in Nazi Germany, but that study is part and parcel of his own experience living as a Jew in Dresden, and he includes many anecdotes about his own experiences. I admit I'm not into philology -- okay, I had to look up the word in the dictionary -- and I only read the book because Klemperer kept talking about it in his diaries. And in turn he talks about his diaries a lot in this book. So they compliment each other, although they can and do stand on their own as well.

I was intrigued, sometimes fascinated, by Klemperer's observations of how language evolved under Nazism. An example: readers of concentration camp memoirs will be familiar with the camp term "organize," meaning "to steal." Well, according to Klemperer, the ordinary German also used the term "organize" meaning to obtain something illegally, either by theft or black marketing -- that is, "They don't issue ration cards for that anymore, you'll have to organize it." I had no idea the same term was used outside the camps -- and Klemperer, it appears, had no idea it was used within the camps, because he doesn't mention it.

I think he would have been very intrigued by 1984 and Newspeak. I also think that if I applied his methods of observation to the media and conversation in my country, I would probably learn some disquieting things.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in language, the Holocaust or World War II. I would also recommend Klemperer's diaries, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941, I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years and the post-war one, The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-1959. Especially the first two. ( )