From: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.german
Subject: CLARIFICATION: Translation help, bitte.
Date: 12 Nov 1992 07:47:50 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bdm@cs.anu.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.23.70

In article 1dn6tjINNcie@manuel.anu.edu.au, I wrote:

>In the course of some research into Middle East history, I need
>to interpret the following sentence from German Foreign Ministry
>archives (1941):

>    Das deutsche Ziel w\"urde dann lediglich die Vernichtung des 
>    im arabischen Raum unter der Protektion der britischen Macht 
>    lebenden Judentums sein.

>I have two professional translations, namely:

>(a) Germany's only objective would then be solely the destruction 
>    of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the
>    protection of British power.
>(b) Thereafter, Germany's only remaining objective in the region 
>    would be limited to the annihilation of the Jews living under
>    British protection in Arab lands.

>My knowledge of German is insufficient to choose between "destruction 
>of the Jewish element" and "annihilation of the Jews", even though
>those phrases could perhaps have substantially different meaning.

>Therefore, my question is: How would a reasonable person in 1941
>WITHOUT BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT have translated that sentence?

Many thanks to the people who responded (24 so far, with many
variations of answer).  Unfortunately, many respondents did not 
understand exactly what I needed (my fault).  I did not provide 
much context in an attempt to avoid prejudicing the result,
but maybe I went too far.  So, here is some more explanation:

(a) I do not need to be educated about Nazi intentions towards Jews.
    This is a German language question, not a history question.

(b) The speaker (S) is a top Nazi (I will identify him later.).
    He knows everything there is to know about Hitler's intentions
    at the time (late 1941).  

(c) The listener (L) is a foreigner who wants German support for 
    his own nationalist aims.  (I will also identify him later.)
    He is definitely NOT a confidant of the Nazi leadership; i.e., 
    he does NOT have previous "inside knowledge" of Nazi intentions.  
    As far as is known, this is the first time anyone has promised
    him something so strong as "Vernichtung des..Judentums". 

(d) Earlier in the same conversation, L had asked S for "Beseitigung 
    der nationalj\"udischen Heimat" (abolition of the Jewish national 
    home).

My problem is NOT "what did the Nazi S actually mean?"  It is:

  ** What did the foreigner L believe he was being promised? **

To elaborate a little, would L have come away with a clear belief 
that the Nazis would kill every Jew in Arab lands, or might he
have reasonably interpretted those words as just a more forceful
way to promise "Beseitigung der nationalj\"udischen Heimat"?
(I would consider this to be a feasible interpretation of the
English phrase "destruction of the Jewish element" in the context.)
Remember: L was NOT a member of the Nazi inner circle.

I apologise if anyone finds this subject matter offensive.  Please
understand that I am seriously interested in the study of history, 
not with pushing any particular political line.

Brendan.