Grossman question

[Polina Morozova]

One more thing to say about the German term "Blockleiter": since "Blockleiter" was an official rank in the NSDAP, it looks like only members of NSDAP (Germans) could be it. 

As it is mentioned in Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 4: "These charts and the evidence to follow show that the Leadership Corps constituted the sum total of the officials of the Nazi Party. It included the Fuehrer at the top; the Reichsleiter, on the horizontal line; the Reich officeholders, immediately below-the five categories of leaders who were area commanders, called the "Hoheitstrager" or "bearers of sovereignty." They are in the redlettered or red-lined boxes at the bottom. They range all the way from the 40-odd Gauleiter in charge of large districts, down through the intermediate political leaders, the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and finally, to the Blockleiter who were charged with looking after 40 to 60 households and what may be best described as staff officers attached to each of the five levels of the Hoheitstrager.

Organized upon a hierarchical basis, forming a pyramidal structure-as appears from the chart which Your Honors hold in your hands-the principal political leaders on a scale of descending authority were:

The Fuehrer, at the top; the Reichsleiter, as I have mentioned, and the main office and officeholders; the Gauleiter, who was the district leader, with his staff officers; the Kreisleiter, who was the county leader, and his staff officers; the Ortsgruppenleiter, the local chapter leader, and his staff officers; the Zellenleiter, who was the cell leader, and his staff officers; and then, finally, the Blockleiter, with his staff officers."



**** 
Polina Morozova-Diab, Ph.D.
10451 Dolecetto drive 
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 
USA 
Tel./Fax: +1 (916) 364 3425 
Mob.:     +1 (916) 833 3755

--- Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> schrieb am Fr, 3.4.2009:
Von: Robert Chandler <kcf19 at DIAL.PIPEX.COM>
Betreff: Re: [SEELANGS] AW: [SEELANGS] Grossman question
An: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Datum: Freitag, 3. April 2009, 21:32

What Olga suggests about the "associative
between such Soviet informers and Nazi collaborators is extremely
interesting. Katarina's point "или под влиянием
украинского говора?
например слово <уличный> будет
poulicny.добавляется префикс.-по-"
cannot be ignored, but these two points do not necessarily contradict one
another.

Grossman's style is often seen as a bit dull and plodding.  I don't
quite
agree with this view.  A few years ago, with regard to a passage from Life
and Fate, I wrote this:
"Before effectively condemning himself to death by refusing to work on the
construction of a gas chamber, Ikonnikov turns to an Italian priest and asks
a profound question in a haunting jumble of Italian, French and German: ‘Que
dois-je faire, mio padre, nous travaillons dans una Vernichtungslager.’
Grossman’s style has sometimes been called ponderous, typically Soviet; it
would be truer to say that Grossman is capable of many kinds of poetry, from
the fumbling, broken language of Ikonnikov to the self-denunciatory
eloquence of Krymov, but that, being suspicious of poetry for its own sake,
he gives himself up to it only when more ordinary language ceases to be
adequate."

But I don’t think I will be able to reproduce this particular subtlety, if
that is what it is.  I fear I shall be resorting to a footnote...

Thanks very much to everyone who has offered their thoughts!

R.



> Nonethelss, even though Katarina is right about her comment, the change,
from
> the normal Russian kvartal'nyj, to the abnormal--usually, purely
temporal
> Russian POkvartal'nyj, calls for attention. Pokvartal'nyj
upolnomochennyj
> would mean someone who writes quarterly denunciations. The fact that this
> title refers to a collaborator with the Nazis suggests a certain
associative
> link between such Soviet informers and Nazi collaborators. Whether this
hint
> of a link is translatable is another matter. All I can hope for is that
Robert
> can do the impossible, precisely about such hints of links--having worked
with
> him on Platonov, I now fully trust his genius for doing the impossible.
> o  
> 
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