Muselmann

Muselmann(GermanpluralMuselmänner) was a term used amongst prisoners of GermanNazi concentration campsduring theHolocaustofWorld War IIto refer to those suffering from a combination ofstarvation(known also as "hunger disease" ) and exhaustion, as well as those who were resigned to their impending death.^[1]^[2]The Muselmann prisoners exhibited severeemaciationand physical weakness, anapatheticlistlessness regarding their own fate, and unresponsiveness to their surroundings owing to their barbaric treatment.^[3]

Photograph of inmates at theBuchenwald concentration campfollowing its liberation, 16 April 1945

Some scholars argue that the term possibly comes from the Muselmanns' inability to stand for any time due to the loss of leg muscle, thus leading them to spend much of their time in aprone position.^[4]Muselmann also literally means "aMuslim"inYiddishand a number of other languages (albeit with spelling differences), and ultimately derives from the Old Turkish word for Muslim,مسلمان(müsliman).

Etymology

"Muselmann" seemingly derives from theGerman:Muselman,a historical term for "Muslim" (literally'mussulman') which is now consideredderogatory.If this derivation is correct, "Muselmann" would literally mean "Muslim man" (Muselman+Mann); but how this term later came to be used to denote starving concentration camp prisoners is uncertain. Some scholars argue that the term may derive from the Muselmann's inability to stand due to a combination of exhaustion andstarvation-induced muscular atrophyin their legs, thus forcing them to spend much of their time in aprone position,which may have evoked the image of the Muslim practice ofprostrationduring prayer,^[4]calledSujud.

Viktor Frankl,who survived internment in theAuschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp,wrote in his memoirs that the term was first used by camp's prisoners to refer to theKapos–prisoners assigned to supervise forced labor by theSSguards− as to them, the term"Muslim" carried a connotationofbarbarism.^[5]On the other hand,Eugen Kogon,who survived internment inBuchenwald,wrote that the term originated from Nazi staff-members, who ascribed the Muselmann's apparent apathy to their circumstances (likely the result of weakness and acute hunger) to Islamicfatalism.^[6]

Other theories as to the term's origins completely eschew any intimate connection to the notions of Islam, as even by the outbreak of World War II, the termMuselmanwas considered archaic, and was rarely used to refer to Muslims.Marie Jalowicz-Simon,aphilologistwho also survived Nazi persecution, argued that by the 1940s,Muselmannhad become a colloquial term for the elderly or infirm,^[7]which allowed it to be co-opted into the Nazi vocabulary.

Usage of the term in literature

The American psychologistDavid P. Boderassisted in identifying the termmusselmanwhen in 1946 he conducted interviews with camp survivors in Europe. He asked them to describe, spell and pronounce the word for camp inmates so emaciated that they had lost the will to live.^[8]^[9]

Primo Levitried to explain the term (he also usesMusselman) in a footnote ofIf This Is a Man(the commonly found English translation is titledSurvival in Auschwitz), his autobiographical account of his time inAuschwitz:^[1]

This word ‘Muselmann’, I do not know why, was used by the old ones of the camp to describe the weak, the inept, those doomed to selection.
— Primo Levi,If This Is a Man,chapter "The Drowned and the Saved".

Their life is short, but their number is endless: they, theMuselmanner,the drowned form the backbone of the camp, an anonymous mass, continually renewed and always identical, of non men who march and labour in silence, the divine spark dead within them, already too empty to really suffer. One hesitates to call them living: one hesitates to call their death death, in the face of which they have no fear, as they are too tired to understand…
— Primo Levi, If This Is a Man

Thepsychologistand Auschwitz survivorViktor Frankl,in his bookMan's Search for Meaning,provides the example of a prisoner who decides to use up his last cigarettes (used as currency in the concentration camps) in the evening because he is convinced he won't survive theAppell(roll call assembly) the next morning; his fellow captives derided him as aMuselmann.Frankl compares this to the dehumanized behavior and attitudes of thekapos.^[10]

Italian philosopherGiorgio Agambendefined his key examples of 'bare life', the Muselmann and the patient in an overcoma, in relation to their passivity and inertia. The Muselmann was for him "a being from whom humiliation, horror and fear had so taken away all consciousness and personality as to make him absolutely apathetic", "[m]ute and absolutely alone... without memory and without grief."^[11]

The testimonial of Polish witnessAdolf Gawalewicz,Refleksje z poczekalni do gazu: ze wspomnień muzułmana( "Reflections in the Gas Chamber's Waiting Room: From the Memoirs of a Muselmann" ), published in 1968, incorporates the term in the title of the work.^[12]

Canadian Jewish author Eli Pfefferkorn published a novel in 2011 with the titleThe Muselmann at the Water Cooler.^[13]

The narrator of British authorMichael Moorcock'sPyat Quartetis a concentration camp survivor who frequently states "I will not become a musselman" when recalling past traumas. The narrative intentionally plays on the etymology of the term, as the titularPyatis a racist obsessed with theOttoman conquest of Constantinople.

The wordMusselmanis frequently used in a demeaning manner.^{[citation needed]}For example, in his bookMan's Search for Meaningauthor and Holocaust survivorViktor Franklberates the attitudes of those who fit his definition of the wordMusselmanby associating the word with those who are unable to psychologically endure the brutal tactics utilized by the Nazis.^[10]

Origin and alternative slang terms

The term spread from Auschwitz-Birkenau to other concentration camps. Its equivalent in theMajdanek concentration campwasGamel(derived from Germangammeln,colloquial for "rotting" ) and in theStutthof concentration campKrypel(derived from GermanKrüppel,"cripple" ). When prisoners reached this emaciated condition, they were selected by camp doctors and murdered by gas, bullets or various other methods.^{[citation needed]}

In the SovietGulags,the termdokhodyaga(Russian доходяга, "goner" ) was used for someone in a similar situation.^{[citation needed]}

Action 14f13

Those prisoners consideredMuselmännerand thus unable to work were also very likely to be labelled "excess ballast" inside the concentration camps.^[14]In spring 1941Heinrich Himmlerexpressed his desire to relieve concentration camps of sick prisoners and those no longer able to work.^[15]Aktion T4,a "euthanasia" programme formentally ill,disabledand other inmates of hospitals and nursing homes who were deemed unworthy of life, was extended to include the weakest concentration-camp prisoners.^[16]^[17]Himmler, together withPhilipp Bouhler,transferred technology and techniques used in the Aktion T4 programme to the concentration camps, and later toEinsatzgruppenanddeath camps.^[18]^[19]

The first concentration-camp victims of this program were gassed bycarbon monoxide poisoningand the first knownSelektiontook place in April 1941 atSachsenhausen concentration camp.By the summer of 1941 at least 400 prisoners from Sachsenhausen had been "retired". The scheme operated under theConcentration Camps Inspectorand theReichsführer-SSunder the name "Sonderbehandlung14f13 ".^[20]The combination of numbers and letters derived from theSSrecord-keeping system and consists of the number "14" for the Concentration Camps Inspector, the letter "f" for the German word for "deaths" (Todesfälle), and the number "13" for the cause of death, in this case "special treatment", a bureaucratic euphemism for gassing.^[21]

References

^^a ^bLevi, Primo (1987). "The Truce".If This Is a Man.Abacus. p.94.ISBN 0349100136.
^Danuta Czech (1996).Auschwitz: Nazi Death Camp.Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.ISBN 978-83-85047-56-8.
^Muselmann definition Johannes Kepler University of Linz,official website. Institut für Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Retrieved 30 November 2010
^^a ^bMuselmann definition(PDF)Yad Vashem,official website. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved 30 November 2010
^Frankl, Viktor (1982).... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager(Man's Search for Meaning). Munich: dtv, p. 22.
^Kogon, Eugen (1974).Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager.Munich, p. 400.
^Simon, Marie (1992). "Das Wort Muselmann in der Sprache der deutschen Konzentrationslager." Schoeps, Julius H. (ed.).Aus zweier Zeugen Mund.Gerlingen, pp. 202–211.
^Ritchie, Donald A. (2011).The Oxford Handbook of Oral History.Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 245 ff.ISBN 978-0-19-533955-0.
^Alan Rosen (18 October 2010).The Wonder of Their Voices: The 1946 Holocaust Interviews of David Boder.Oxford University Press. pp. 306 ff.ISBN 978-0-19-978076-1.
^^a ^bFrankl, Viktor E. (1 June 2006).Man's Search for Meaning.Beacon Press.ISBN 978-0-8070-1428-8.
^Elliott, Jane (Summer 2013). "Suffering Agency: Imagining neoliberal personhood in North America and Britain".Social Text(31): 86.
^Gawalewicz, Adolf(1968).Refleksje z Poczekalni do Gazu: ze wspomnień muzułmana.Kraków:Wydawnictwo Literackie.p. 165.
^Pfefferkorn, Eli (2011).The Müselmann at the Water Cooler.Academic Studies Press.ISBN 978-1936235667.
^Robert P. Watson (26 April 2016).The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II.Da Capo Press. pp. 65–.ISBN 978-0-306-82490-6.
^Stephen Goodell; Sybil Milton; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1995).1945: the year of liberation.U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.ISBN 978-0-89604-700-6.
^S. Kühl (7 August 2013).For the Betterment of the Race: The Rise and Fall of the International Movement for Eugenics and Racial Hygiene.Springer. pp. 126–.ISBN 978-1-137-28612-3.
^United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2002).The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined.Indiana University Press. pp. 332–.ISBN 0-253-21529-3.
^David Nicholls (2000).Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion.ABC-CLIO. pp. 34–.ISBN 978-0-87436-965-6.
^Henry Friedlander (9 November 2000).The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution.Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 142–.ISBN 978-0-8078-6160-8.
^Peter Hayes(17 January 2017).Why?: Explaining the Holocaust.W. W. Norton. pp. 86–.ISBN 978-0-393-25437-2.
^ Michael Burleigh; Wolfgang Wippermann (7 November 1991).The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945.Cambridge University Press. pp.161–.ISBN 978-0-521-39802-2.

[levi-1] Levi, Primo (1987). "The Truce".If This Is a Man.Abacus. p.94.ISBN 0349100136.

[Czech1996-2] Danuta Czech (1996).Auschwitz: Nazi Death Camp.Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.ISBN 978-83-85047-56-8.

[3] Muselmann definition Johannes Kepler University of Linz,official website. Institut für Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Retrieved 30 November 2010

[Yad-4] Muselmann definition(PDF)Yad Vashem,official website. Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved 30 November 2010

[5] Frankl, Viktor (1982).... trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager(Man's Search for Meaning). Munich: dtv, p. 22.

[6] Kogon, Eugen (1974).Der SS-Staat: Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager.Munich, p. 400.

[7] Simon, Marie (1992). "Das Wort Muselmann in der Sprache der deutschen Konzentrationslager." Schoeps, Julius H. (ed.).Aus zweier Zeugen Mund.Gerlingen, pp. 202–211.

[Ritchie2011-8] Ritchie, Donald A. (2011).The Oxford Handbook of Oral History.Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 245 ff.ISBN 978-0-19-533955-0.

[Rosen2010-9] Alan Rosen (18 October 2010).The Wonder of Their Voices: The 1946 Holocaust Interviews of David Boder.Oxford University Press. pp. 306 ff.ISBN 978-0-19-978076-1.

[Frankl2006-10] Frankl, Viktor E. (1 June 2006).Man's Search for Meaning.Beacon Press.ISBN 978-0-8070-1428-8.

[11] Elliott, Jane (Summer 2013). "Suffering Agency: Imagining neoliberal personhood in North America and Britain".Social Text(31): 86.

[12] Gawalewicz, Adolf(1968).Refleksje z Poczekalni do Gazu: ze wspomnień muzułmana.Kraków:Wydawnictwo Literackie.p. 165.

[13] Pfefferkorn, Eli (2011).The Müselmann at the Water Cooler.Academic Studies Press.ISBN 978-1936235667.

[Watson2016-14] Robert P. Watson (26 April 2016).The Nazi Titanic: The Incredible Untold Story of a Doomed Ship in World War II.Da Capo Press. pp. 65–.ISBN 978-0-306-82490-6.

[GoodellMilton1995-15] Stephen Goodell; Sybil Milton; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (1995).1945: the year of liberation.U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.ISBN 978-0-89604-700-6.

[Kühl2013-16] S. Kühl (7 August 2013).For the Betterment of the Race: The Rise and Fall of the International Movement for Eugenics and Racial Hygiene.Springer. pp. 126–.ISBN 978-1-137-28612-3.

[Museum2002-17] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2002).The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined.Indiana University Press. pp. 332–.ISBN 0-253-21529-3.

[Nicholls2000-18] David Nicholls (2000).Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion.ABC-CLIO. pp. 34–.ISBN 978-0-87436-965-6.

[Friedlander2000-19] Henry Friedlander (9 November 2000).The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution.Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 142–.ISBN 978-0-8078-6160-8.

[Hayes2017-20] Peter Hayes(17 January 2017).Why?: Explaining the Holocaust.W. W. Norton. pp. 86–.ISBN 978-0-393-25437-2.

[BurleighWippermann1991-21] Michael Burleigh; Wolfgang Wippermann (7 November 1991).The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945.Cambridge University Press. pp.161–.ISBN 978-0-521-39802-2.

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