Toxic terms from Hitlers era trending in Germany

[inanna]

Sat., Dec. 10, 2016

As white nationalism surges in both Europe and the U.S., terms about ethnic purity that were long verboten are being normalized.


BERLIN — In a recent tweet, a German lawmaker used a highly specific term to describe her anti-migrant angst. Suggesting her country’s national identity was under threat, she cried “Umvolkung” — a word roughly translated as “ethnic conversion.”

It is also a word that was last in vogue when Adolf Hitler ruled the land and its appropriation by a politician from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party sparked an uproar. Yet the tweet highlighted the term’s resurgence in Germany — where a glossary of a half-dozen terms long associated with the Nazis are staging a comeback.

Hitler and his propagandists wielded a toxic lexicon in the early 20th century, deploying vocabulary meant to exalt ethnic purity and own Germany’s only real truth. And the re-emergence in social media, literature and political protests of words that were weaponized by the Nazis is generating a fierce debate here over the power of language in politics, especially as nationalists surge on both sides of the Atlantic.

<snip>

Forces on the political right are hailing the exhumation of such words as a triumph over political correctness and war guilt — as well as a nod to free speech in Europe, which came under the spotlight after the guilty verdict Friday against Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders for inciting hate against Moroccans. Calling it time to reclaim German words tainted by the Nazis, proponents see a new tell-it-like-it-is discourse taking shape over an influx of nearly 1 million mostly-Muslim migrants from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

...

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/12/10/toxic-terms-from-hitlers-era-trending-in-germany.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Had no idea! Rebelling against "political correctness," like US idiots? They resent being civilized?

How stupid do people have to be to be proud of their ugliness, lowness?

They lost before when they tried to force their hatred down everyone's throat. It's all going to fail everywhere, in time. These fascists in the US and everywhere else are condemning themselves to a lifetime of evil. I hope I'm going to live long enough to see them all go down in flames.

[BigDemVoter]

2. And granted our country certainly has had its low points.

But that idiot is wielding an ugly weapon when she uses that word, and she, as a German, should ESPECIALLY be aware. Disgusting.