Sophie's Choice: Explanatory Notes
Chapter Thirteen
Carolyn M. White
 

 1.   415.11      Dr. Walter Durrfeld
Engineer and chief of construction at the I.G. Farbenindustrie Auschwitz plant between 1941-1944. Denied knowing personally of any abuse of slave labor at the camp. His denials were contradicted by eye-witness testimony during the Nuremberg trials.

2.    415.11     Leipzig
German city southwest of Berlin.

3.    415.12      I. G. Farbenindustrie
Large German chemical company known as the leader among industrial firms in using the forced labor of  prisoners at Auschwitz.

4.     416.17     Collegium Maius
Oldest university building in Cracow; part of Jagiellonian University. Originally built in 1400.

5.     416.17    Wawel Castle
Renaissance castle built in the 16th century by Poland’s King  Sigismund the Old (1506-1648). In Cracow.

6.     416.22    der Durchfall
“A strike at the stomach” (German). Diarrhea.

7.     417.32     Von Hofmannsthal
Austrian poet and dramatist (1874-1929) known for his collaborative work with composer Richard Strauss.

8.     417.33     Gerhart Hauptmann
German playwright (1862-1946) and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912.

9.     418.8     Swabian
German dialect spoken in Swabia, a region of SW Germany.

10.     418.18  Du bist ein…Oh merde…
 “You are a…Oh shit…" (German).

11.     420.4    Boleslaw the Bashful
Polish king (1243-1279).

12.     420.29    Straits Settlements
Collective name for former British colonies in Southeast Asia.
    .
13.     421.12    Prater Ferris wheel
Famous attraction at the Prater, a Viennese amusement park built in 1766; the ferris wheel was a constructed in 1897.

14.     422.21   Bayreuth
German city in northern Bavaria well known for its annual music festival, particularly as a showcase for the operas of Richard Wagner.

15.     422.22    Lotte Lehmann, Kleiber, Gieseking, Furtwangler, Backhaus…
Well-known German musicians of the period.

16.      423.10     allez!
 “Go!” (French).

17.     424.6    Children’s Camp
At Auschwitz, a special area of the camp containing the barracks for children, many of whom were used for bogus  “medical experiments.”

18.     424.26    SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Fritzch
A subordinate of Hoss’s, perhaps best known for his suggestion that Zyclon-B (a form of hydrogen cyanide originially used as a  pesticide) be used in the gas chambers at the camp.

19.     426.1     Lebensborn
German for “spring of life.” One of the most terrifying of the Nazi projects, the original goal of this program was to create a “super-race” fathered by SS officers and women prisoners who were considered to look “racially pure."

20.     428.29     Augsburg or Munster
Cities in southwestern and western Germany, respectively.

21. 429.2    Wehrmacht
The Armed Forces of Germany.

22. 429.23    schmaltz
German. Excessively sentimental art or music

23.     430.4     Konigssee
Lake near the Austrian-Bavarian border.

24.     430.5     Berchtesgaden
Small town in Bavarian Alps; home of “The Eagle’s Nest,”  Hitler’s country retreat.

25.     430.30    Sturmanns and Rottenfuhrers and Unterscharfuhrers
Various ranks within the German SS. Equivalents would be Private, Private First Class, and “Undersargeant.”

26.     431.13    polonaise
A formal, stately Polish Dance.

27.     431.31   Ordnung
German for “order.”

28.     432.6 gnadiges Fraulein
“Gracious Miss” (German).

28.     433.25  Madel
A slang term for “girl" (German).

30.     433.41  de Synkope
A sudden loss of consciousness; a fainting spell (German).

31.     434.1     Obersturmbannfuhrer
The equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel.

32.     434.40  Das bin ich
“That’s me” (German).

33.     435.2   adipose
Relating to animal fat.

34     435.17    hymnody
The singing of  hymns.

35.     435.26  Ici Londres!
“There’s London!”  (French).

36.     435.29  anus mundi
Latin for “the rectum of the world.”  Term often used by Nazis when specifically referring to Auschwitz in Holocaust literature.

37.     435.32  “L’Italie a declare qu’un etat de guerre existe contre l’Allemagne…”
“Italy has declared a state of war against Germany…” (French).

38.     437.41    Schleswig-Holstein
City in northwestern Germany.

39.     438.1    Kiel Bay
 In northwestern Germany, on the North Sea.

40.     438.33     "Schlage doch, gewunschte Stunde"
 Title of a cantata believed to be the work of Georg Melchior Hoffman.  In German, “Strike than thou, O blessed Hour.”

41.     441.7  Liebestraum
 “Dream of Love”;  also a famous work by composer Franz Liszt.

42.     442.32     Pohl and Maurer
Members of the  SS.

43.     443.5  Die Schizophrenie
Schizophrenia (German).

44.     443.39     “Bitte!”
 “Please,” as in “Excuse me, please!” (German).

45.     446.12     le blaspheme
Blasphemy (French).

46.     446.16  le plus grand blaspheme
The greatest blasphemy (French).

47.     447.7  folie
 Folly (French).

48.     450.5    Dreck
Filth, shit (Yiddish).

49      450.20    kvetch
Complainer (Yiddish).

50.     450.35    Franz Lehar
Hungarian composer  (1870-1948) best known for his operettas.
 

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