I Have Lived a Thousand Years (24 page)

Dunaszerdahely
—DU-nah-SER-dah-hay—Hungarian name for Dunajska Streda

Ellike
—ELL-I-keh—diminutive, affectionate form of name Elli; Ellikém, my little Elli—H
UNGARIAN

Hasid
—hah-SID—member of a pious Jewish sect—H
EBREW

Heil Hitler!
—hile HIT-ler—Hail, Hitler!—G
ERMAN

Herr Offizier
—hair aw-fee-Tseer—Sir Officer (proper usage in addressing German military staff)—G
ERMAN

Kapo
—KAH-poh—head of work detail—G
ERMAN
, from Italian
capo,
head

Kommando
—koh-MAHN-doh—work detail—G
ERMAN

Lagerälteste
—LAH-ger-ELL-tess-teh—head of camp (literally, camp elder)—G
ERMAN

Liebling
—LEEP-ling—sweetheart—G
ERMAN

Liquidation
—LIK-vee-dah-TSIOHN—dissolution, slang for extermination, killing—G
ERMAN

Lódz
—loodg or lahts—city in central Poland

Los!
—lohss—Get going!—G
ERMAN

marschieren
—mar-Shee-ren—to march—G
ERMAN

Oberscharführer
—OH-ber-shahr-FEE-rer—senior platoon leader (military rank)—G
ERMAN

Planierung
—plah-NEER-oong—leveling of ground—G
ERMAN

Plaszow
—PLAH-shov—concentration camp near Krakow, Poland

Raus
!—rowss—Get out!—G
ERMAN

razzia
—police raid—H
UNGARIAN
, originally from Arabic

Revier
—reh-VEER—infirmary—G
ERMAN

Ruhe!
—ROO-eh—Quiet!—G
ERMAN

Šamorín
—SHA-taw-raw-i-yaw-oo-i-hay—town in north-eastern Hungary

Schutzstaffel
—SHUTZ-shtah-fell—elite military and police unit of the Nazi party (literally, protective squadron)—G
ERMAN

Shaharit
—shah-khah-REET—morning prayer—H
EBREW

shiva
—SHIH-vuh—seven-day period of mourning in Jewish religious practice—H
EBREW

Somorja
—Shaw-mawr-yaw—Hungarian name for Šamorin

SS
—ess-ESS—
see
Schutzstaffel

Tattersall
—TAT-ter-sawl—London horse market founded by horseman Richard Tattersall

Weltschmerz
—VELT-shmairts—sadness about the world’s evils (literally, world pain)—G
ERMAN

Zählappell
—TSAIL-ah-PELL—roll call—G
ERMAN

L
IVIA
B
ITTON
-J
ACKSON
, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a Ph.D. in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include
Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust,
which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.

About the photo on the front cover:

This picture was reproduced from a glass plate that served as a negative of the photo taken of Elli in the spring of 1944 by a Nazi photographer right before her deportation to Auschwitz. After she returned from the death camps, Elli, while searching for pictures of her father and aunt who perished, found this negative of herself among hundreds dumped in the backyard of the photographer’s deserted home. For more than fifty-two years she has carefully guarded the glass plate.