The Ausrotten Files: Martin Luther and Friends
Richard Schultz
Our "revisionist" friends often have a lot of fun trying to "prove" that
the word "ausrotten" cannot possibly mean "to exterminate." So far, every
native speaker of the language has disagreed with them; every dictionary
consulted has disagreed with them; and speeches from Hitler himself make
it clear that "ausrotten" does indeed mean "to exterminate." I'd like
to add one more data point to the growing collection, if I may. This
was prompted in part by Matt "Prince Myshkin [tm]" Giwer's demand that
someone provide him with an example of ausrotten used in a context that
clearly means the complete extermination of a people, which Gord McFee
was kind enough to do. Here is another interesting set of examples.
In addition to his place in the history of religion, Martin Luther also
holds an important place in the history of the German language for his
famous translation of the Bible, which was at least as strong an influence
on literary German as the King James Version was on literary English.
In his Bible, the word "ausrotten" appears. Here are just a couple of
examples:
"Darumb spricht der HERR Zabaoth der Gott Israel also
Sihe Jch wil mein Angesicht wider euch richten
zum unglueck und gantz Juda sol ausgerottet werden." (Jeremiah 44:11)
". . . Obadja aber furchter den HEERN seer
Denn da Jsabel die Propheten des HERRN ausrottet
nam Obadja hundert Propheten vnd versteckt sie in der Hoelen
hie funffzig vnd da funffzig vnd versorget sie mit brot vnd wasser."
(1 Kings 18:3-4)
Now, I know what the "revisionists" are going to say -- just because
Luther used it to mean what we all know it means doesn't mean that it
means the same thing nowadays. Well, the other famous 16th-century
German translation was the Zuercher Bibel of Zwingli. Unfortunately,
our library doesn't have a copy of Zwingli's translation. What it does
have is a copy of the revision of that translation done from 1907 to 1931.
And it appears to use "ausrotten" even more frequently than Luther did.
For example:
". . .so werde durch schriftlichen Erlass angeordnet, dass das Screiben
mit dem Anschlage des Agagiters Haman, des Sohnes Hamedathas, widerrufen
werde dass es aufzusetzen liess, um die Juden in allen Provinzen des
Reiches auszurotten." (Esther 8:5) Just for completeness, I point out
that Luther had used "umzubringen" (i.e. "to kill") in place of
"auszurotten." (Note that the Hebrw original here is "l'abbed" -- which
means "to destroy" or "to cause to perish." Luther also has "umbringen"
in place of the Zuercher's "ausrotten" in Esther 3:13.
One final example: a famous example of a Biblical mass destruction is
Noah's flood, and after the flood, God promises not to destroy all life
again (which is about as total an annihilation as one could talk about).
In the words of the Zuercher:
"Ich will einen Bund mit euch aufrichten, dass niemals wieder alles
Fleisch von den Wassern der Sintflut, soll ausgerottet werden und niemals
wieder eine Sintflut kommen soll, die Erde zu verderben." (Genesis 9:11)
I checked a couple of other German Bible translations of this passage:
Luther has "verderbet," an 1839 translation (de Wette) also has
"ausgerottet," and the Jerusalem (which I've never been sure is actually
translated from the Hebrew or is a German translation of the French
translation -- it's not clear in our library's edition) chooses to use
"vertilgt." The Hebrew original in this case is "l'karet," which literally
means "to excise."
In conclusion, then, we see that various Bible translations agree with
what we ("we" being people with mental capacities greater than that of
the average Cranshaw melon) already knew: the word "ausrotten," when
applied to people, means "to exterminate"; it has had that meaning
at least since the sixteenth century; and that it had that meaning from
documents contemporary with the Nazi period.
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Richard Schultz sch...@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
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"an optimist is a guy/ that has never had/ much experience"