big antedating of "Hun" = 'German.'

[Jonathan Lighter]

It just reminded me of an alleged Hitler quote in the same vein:

"Genghis Khan had millions of woman and children killed by his own will and
with a gay heart. History sees in him only a great state builder.
 What the weak Western European civilization thinks about me does not
matter. …Glory and honor are beckoning to you, gentlemen."

 (Louis P. Lochner, _What about Germany?_ ,N.Y.: Dodd, Mead, 1942, pp. 1-2.

The authenticity of the quote is disputed. It appears in a transcript of
Hitler's secret, off-the-cuff pep talk to his generals in 1939, on the eve
of the invasion of Poland, that was given to Pulitzer-Prize winning
journalist Lochner not long afterward.

Because the Nuremberg prosecutors were unable to prove the document's
authenticity, it was not entered into evidence at the 1945 trials. Entered
instead were two different transcripts that had been seized by the U.S.
Army from Wehrmacht files at the end of the war. These are generally
similar but much sketchier. They do not include this passage or one or two
very damning others about Poles and Armenians. Thus Lochner's may be an
authentic, more complete version of Hitler's remarks, or it may be a
partial forgery. Though there seems to have been no positive evidence for
it, the possibility of forgery rendered the document useless to the
prosecutors. Readers of _Mein Kampf_ will have to make their own literary
judgment.

The same transcript contains the sole record of Hitler's famous rhetorical
question, "Who talks today of the extermination of the Armenians?"

Anyway, there's never been any doubt about Kaiser Bill's public and
well-reported recommendation of Hunnishness.

JL






On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 9:16 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Kaiser Bill. That kinda guy.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: big antedating of "Hun" = 'German.'
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On 11/13/13 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>> > Date:    Tue, 12 Nov 2013 19:41:15 -0500
>> > From:    Laurence Horn<laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> > Subject: Re: big antedating of "Hun" = 'German.'
>> >
>> > On Nov 12, 2013, at 3:20 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> >
>> >> >YBQ probably should include the Kaiser's 1900 exhortation to his
>> troops:
>> >> >
>> >> >"When you meet the enemy,... you will give no pardon and take no
>> prisoners.
>> >> >...As the Huns a thousand years ago under King Etzel [i.e., Attila]
>> > Aha! So*that*  explains why the car didn't sell!  I knew it must have
>> been more than just the horse-collar grille.
>> >
>> > LH
>> >
>> Horse collar? I always thought it was a toilet seat.
>>
>> ---Amy West
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
>



-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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