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Esperanto and Nazis

de Alkanadi, 2015-aŭgusto-23

Mesaĝoj: 36

Lingvo: English

Alkanadi (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-23 08:43:27

I couldn't figure out why Hitler and the Nazis hated Esperanto so much. I guess they were just against everything that didn't promote Nazism. They just hated everything. Check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BQUiJxLINo

Anyone who hates information is an evil person in my opinion. Information is necessary in order to make good decisions. We cannot make good decisions without good information.

Anyone who is against information is looking for followers, not thinkers.

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-23 10:35:12

Alkanadi:I couldn't figure out why Hitler and the Nazis hated Esperanto so much...
Hitler regarded Esperanto as part of an international Jewish conspiracy. See this wiki article.

Edigxepe (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-23 10:57:38

1. L. L. Zamenhof was Jewish, apparently.
2. Esperanto builds an international point of view, as opposed to the overly nationalist and centralised policies of the Nazis.

johmue (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 08:42:16

Alkanadi:I couldn't figure out why Hitler and the Nazis hated Esperanto so much.
To me the science of Esperantology is a very problematic one, as all the Esperantologists are Esperantists, and thus somewhat biased. On the other hand, an Esperantologist needs to be an Esperantist, because nobody could imagine an anglist who does not speak english, for example.

That said, let me try to answer your question. I once heard the version that the hatered of the Nazis against Esperanto was more a hatered against communists. At that time many Esperanto speakers happened to be communists as the Esperanto movement between the two world wars was vastly pushed by communists who hoped that Esperanto would be the language to unite the international working class and would lead communism to final victory. Then the Nazis prosecuted Esperantists for being communist.

Later, after the Blitzkrieg, the Nazis faced the problem, that they could not "colonize" the areas in eastern Europe using german as the official language. Just because the german language turned out too be to difficult to teach in a short time. Therefore Esperanto was considered as language for that.

Later on the Esperanto movement liked the idea better, that the Nazis hated Esperanto just for being Esperanto. So all the (biased) research resulted in that.

As I said, seriuos neutral research is very rare in this field, so we don't know very well, what was actually going on. As for all things in history: There are four kinds of truth: "your truth", "their truth", "the truth" and "what really happened".

Sunjo (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 09:18:14

A friend of mine told me that her grandmother (in Germany) was forced to learn Esperanto in school because Hitler wanted it. It's hard to believe (especially if you have read Ulrich Lins "The dangerous language" ), but there is also no reason to believe that this grandmother is not telling the truth.

Alkanadi (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 09:35:07

Sunjo:A friend of mine told me that her grandmother (in Germany) was forced to learn Esperanto in school because Hitler wanted it.
Interesting. Why did Hitler write negatively about Esperanto in his book?

rikforto (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 12:27:27

Alkanadi:
Sunjo:A friend of mine told me that her grandmother (in Germany) was forced to learn Esperanto in school because Hitler wanted it.
Interesting. Why did Hitler write negatively about Esperanto in his book?
Just spit-balling here. There are two things about the Third Reich to keep in mind.

1) While they did have a unifying philosophy, they changed details all the time. (That makes sense, right? We all do that about things we believe.) So, just because Hitler had a policy about Esperanto one year does not mean that he didn't reevaluate his stance. He feared America, land where Europe's most daring had immigrated, until he decided we had too many black folks corroding our society. Charming as ever. The point being, the Reich may have changed its mind about the language.

2) Hitler took strategic views all the time. For example, he privately wrote about how he wanted to get rid of Christianity, but promoted Protestantism because it helped maintain his popularity. He may well have thought Esperanto useful, if ultimately something he would discard.

I don't know enough about Esperanto's relationship to the Third Reich to say which---if either---it is.

rikforto (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 12:27:27

(Double Posting)

Vestitor (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 12:37:13

rikforto:He feared America, land where Europe's most daring had immigrated...
Leaving behind all the 'non-daring' people no doubt. Like Hitler himself perhaps who dared to take over the whole of Europe.

Cease this backstory of heroes leaving Europe for the magic colony, it's not true.

rikforto (Montri la profilon) 2015-aŭgusto-24 12:58:15

Vestitor:
rikforto:He feared America, land where Europe's most daring had immigrated...
Leaving behind all the 'non-daring' people no doubt. Like Hitler himself perhaps who dared to take over the whole of Europe.

Cease this backstory of heroes leaving Europe for the magic colony, it's not true.
So! I might be willing to admit I'm wrong about this. I remember reading this somewhere when I was in high school, which is scarcely a citation. On the one hand, it fits with Hitler's psuedo-scientific views of evolution. On the other hand, it would flatter both American historians and readers to think he first feared our immigrant strength and changed his mind over black Americans. There is reason to be credulous, sure.

But derisively telling me to cease with hardly a word is not helpful or convincing. Is there any particular reason this example is historically unsound?

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