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Linguistics and Translation of a Hungarian Holocaust Diary



Author(s)

Gabriel Mayer

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2015.01.001

University of Haifa-Holocaust Studies

Éva Heyman started writing her diary on February 13,^,1944, Friday, on her 13th birthday. Three months later, on May 30, 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Three days before her deportation, Éva was able to give the diary to the Hungarian family cook, who in turn, passed it on to Éva’s mother, Ági Zsolt, two year later. The mother published the diary in Hungary in 1948, and almost 20 years later, in 1964, it appeared in Hebrew, published by Yad Vashem as one of the first diaries produced by this institution. The English translation was printed 10 years later, in 1974. Since the latter publication appeared, there has been a debate among scholars regarding the authenticity of the diary, especially because it remained in the hands of the mother and her husband, a well-known Hungarian writer Béla Zsolt, all these years. Some suspected that Zsolt might have had a part in refining the work to ensure its publishing success. The work has been out of print for decades, but less than two years ago, it was reprinted in its original Hungarian form in Budapest. The present case study compares the various versions and attempts to show that what appears, as having been altered by a renowned author is actually the result of a well-intentioned translation. The diaries contain some differences, attributable to translation, resulting in subtle alterations. Hungarian is a synthetic and therefore more laconic language than English. Even the best translation may inadvertently affect historiographical interpretation as well as the moral conclusions of the text. Moreover, the idiomatic structure of the average Hungarian’s speech, and its simple, colloquial style present an additional challenge to direct translation. This diary may be a singular case of linguistic manipulation, but its implications are relevant on a much wider scale, especially when examining the writings of young victims. Alexandra Zapruder has pointed at a general tendency to elevate young victims’ writings to a moral higher ground, specifically because of a desire to present them in a favorable light. Linguistic transmutation is a mechanism that may alter the original content and context. This paper wishes to draw attention to this device, especially when the original works are subjected to representation.

Holocaust studies, linguistics, history, WWII (World War II), Transylvanian, holocaust, Genocide studies