标题: What Germans Thought Right After WW II--They Still Don’t Want to Talk About It [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 5-4-2014 19:03 标题: What Germans Thought Right After WW II--They Still Don’t Want to Talk About It Christopher Shea, Germany in Ruins; Harvard Professors Werner Sollors takes on the bleak, defeated nation of his youth. Boston Globe, May 4, 2014 (an interview). www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/0 ... ak-postwar-germany/
Quote:
“Germans at the time didn’t want to look back at the war, not only because of the overwhelming defeat—which involved the leveling of cities and the widespread rape of German women by Soviet troops—but because of the monstrousness of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime. Yet they saw nothing to look forward to either, given the destruction of the institutions necessary for a functioning state and economy. The story of that time, he found, was the story of a people stuck in a kind of bleak limbo.
Note:
(a) The German surname Werner is “composed of the Germanic elements war(in) ‘guard’ + heri, hari ‘army.”
Warner has the same etymology, but is a surname in Germany and England, too.
(b) Werner Sollors
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Sollors
(PhD 1975 from the Free University of Berlin; assistant & associate professor, Columbia University 1975-1983)
His new book:
The Temptation of Despair; Tales of the 1940s. Harvard University Press, Apr 30, 2014.
(b) “SOLLORS: I remember as a child, [German] adults usually looked fairly stern when you walked around a town, and the GIs had a more radiant way toward children. I wrote about going into a house that was requisitioned and the soldiers just said, ‘Come on in.’ And there was someone playing on the pianola, and the house was a mess. We got some white bread, and stuff like that. It just seemed like an alternative world.”
(i) requisition (n, vt):
“2b: a demand or application made usually with authority: as
(1) : a demand made by military authorities upon civilians for supplies or other needs” www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/requisition
(ii) player piano
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano
(also known as pianola or autopiano; is a self-playing piano)
(c) “SOLLORS: You know, the Army had a very Southern feeling to it. Blacks certainly did not have many leading positions in the Army. They were in the transportation corps and taking care of quartermaster stuff.”
(i) quartermaster (n): "an army officer who provides clothing and subsistence for a body of troops" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quartermaster
(ii) quartermaster (n): “early 15c., "subordinate officer of a ship," from French quartier-maître or directly from Dutch kwartier-meester; originally a ship's officer whose duties included stowing of the hold; later (c.1600) an officer in charge of quarters and rations for troops. See quarters [qv].” www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=quartermaster
(d) “SOLLORS: You see things that you ordinarily never see [where houses were ripped open]. I mean bathtubs, toilets, paintings hanging there, still some settee in a corner.”
(i) settee (n; alteration of settle):
“1: a long seat with a back
2: a medium-sized sofa with arms and a back" www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/settee
(illustration)
(ii) If one enters the word “settee” in English Wikipedia, the return will be “couch.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couch
Quote:
“The term couch is used in North America, Australia, New Zealand, whilst the term sofa is generally used in the United Kingdom. The word originated in Middle English from the Old French noun couche, which derived from the verb meaning ‘to lie down.[footnote omitted] It originally denoted an item of furniture for lying or sleeping on, somewhat like a chaise longue, but now refers to sofas in general.
“Other terms synonymous with the above definition are settee, chesterfield, divan, davenport, and canapé.[footnote omitted] The word sofa is from Turkish derived from the Arabic word suffa for 'wool', originating in the Aramaic word sippa for 'mat.’”[footnote omitted]