Thursday, December 20, 2007

Bradley Smith's Guide to Literature

Bradley introduces us to his literary hero, but can't spell his name correctly.

7 comments:

joachim neander said...

The un-deny-able fact that, in the post, "Hemmingway" appears with two letters "m," shows that the post could not have been written by Mr. Smith, a native speaker of English, himself. The doubling of the consonant inevitably points to a forgery by a native speaker of German, probably an emmigrant of Jewish descent.

Nick Terry said...

Joachim,

have you seen a picture of Friedrich Paul Berg? There have been a few posted at RODOH, ask in Siberian Exile if Roberto can post one for you.

I think there's something to your Jewish emigre conspiracy theory.

;-)

joachim neander said...

Thank you, Nick, for the clue.

But you had better produce a document. As our friend "Hannover" (with two "n," therefore not forged) always demands. Why should I look at a picture from Siberia? Siberia is a part of Russia, the "Land Of Fakes." I need not look at this Berg exile picture - when it comes from Russia, I KNOW it is a fake. With or without two "m."

;-)

Nick Terry said...

BTW apropos your being-baited over the 'hair' document, I have copies from PRO files, which looked very much like originals. Stands to reason since the order was sent to all KZs, no?

joachim neander said...

BTW, Nick, you would do me a great favor sending me copies of the above mentioned PRO files to my POB address!

I went to C.W.Porter's Web site where he posted a copy of the allegedly "illegible" USSR-511 document (the order to collect hair in the concentration camps) - it is only the last paragraph that, in fact, is very difficult to read, whereas the first page of the letter is very clear. The IMT's English translation, alas, is shoddy - small wonder, if it was made from a Russian translation of the German original.

Porter's "debunking," on the other hand, shows that he has no knowledge of SS-WVHA and concentration camp bureaucracy and correspondence. And he does not know that, in the 3rd Reich, the letter "ß" was replaced on many typewriters by the "Sigrune" for typing "SS" and "HJ". Mechanical typewriters have a limited number of keys, so if you introduce a new character, you must throw out another one.

Nick Terry said...

"BTW, Nick, you would do me a great favor sending me copies of the above mentioned PRO files to my POB address!"

Soon :-)

"I went to C.W.Porter's Web site where he posted a copy of the allegedly "illegible" USSR-511 document (the order to collect hair in the concentration camps) - it is only the last paragraph that, in fact, is very difficult to read, whereas the first page of the letter is very clear. The IMT's English translation, alas, is shoddy - small wonder, if it was made from a Russian translation of the German original."

As you know, not unheard of with this process.

"Porter's "debunking," on the other hand, shows that he has no knowledge of SS-WVHA and concentration camp bureaucracy and correspondence. And he does not know that, in the 3rd Reich, the letter "ß" was replaced on many typewriters by the "Sigrune" for typing "SS" and "HJ". Mechanical typewriters have a limited number of keys, so if you introduce a new character, you must throw out another one."

Yes, the beta-S canard is especially amusing. When I read Porter's attack along these lines, I checked an Einsatzgruppe A file from the Riga archive, and found documents with no beta-S and some with. Likewise in Wehrmacht files the suppression of a beta-S was incredibly common.

Typos are routine across the most inocuous of correspondence, especially "working documents" such as receipts and bills of lading, for all branches of the Third Reich state administration.

joachim neander said...

Nick,
"Typos are routine across the most inocuous of correspondence, especially "working documents"..."

Not only there. Let me just mention the problems Bible students have with the different text variants of the Scriptures that have come down to us. It is ridiculous when HDers believe that the rank and file and the shorthand typists of the SS were better in German orthography than the Scribes, the intellectual elite of their times, were in Hebrew or Greek respectively.

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