Today, 27 January 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Army in 1945. There aren’t many survivors left alive, and next year there will be fewer.
It would be much simpler to invent new words for these concepts. This Wikipedia article discusses the use of the adjective “Polish” in reference to the Nazi concentration camps in World War II.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_death_camp_controversy
Offense has been caused because Polish officials are (rightly, in my opinion) dismayed to be referred to in media as the architects and purveyors of the “Polish death camps” that were located within the borders of their country. However, they argue that these camps were conceived of in Nazi Germany, and run by the Nazis, while the Nazis occupied their country.
It’s a no-brainer: Poland itself wasn’t responsible for genocide. But it’s still less of a mouthful to say “Auschwitz” than it is to say the more politically and ideologically correct “Auschwitz Birkenau. German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945).”
Then there’s the trouble with the word “German” and the stigma attached to the country and its citizens because of the two World Wars. Not all Germans were Nazis. Not all Nazis were Germans. Hitler was Austrian. There are good and bad people everywhere – it makes no difference what country they are from.
(And what was with Hitler’s “Aryan, blonde hair, blue-eyed” obsession? That’s still something I don’t understand. Hitler was dark-haired ad dark-eyed. Wouldn’t that mean he’s effectively sending himself to the gas chambers because he doesn’t fit the arbitrary mould of idiotic physical perfection that his Party has cooked up? But sanity is not what was going on there. Maybe he’d taken too much meth to make any sense to himself. Too bad all those assassination attempts failed. But Valkyrie is still a good film.)
English is a particularly problematic language when it comes to adjectives and demonyms. There is often only one word to describe both – which makes them visually identical – but they mean quite different things.
English language
English literature
English people
English cuisine
An adjective is a word which describes, or qualifies, a noun or noun phrase.
A demonym is the name for the resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality. Thus, the demonym for England is English; the demonym for Italy is Italian, but the demonym for Netherlands is Dutch. [source: Wikipedia: “demonym”]
The concentration camps were not Polish, German, Dutch, French or Italian. I definitely have not exhausted the list, but of one thing I am sure: they were Nazi. To call them anything else does a great disservice to the countries who fought against the Nazis and eventually liberated the millions of people left alive.
A version of this post first appeared on 28 October 2011.
