Yiddish and Rotwelsch, Nazi France

Discovering his family's Nazi links is what happened to historian Martin Puchner when he set out to explore the use of a secret language by Jewish people and other travellers in middle Europe. He joins author and language expert Michael Rosen for a conversation with Matthew Sweet about Yiddish, Rotwelsch, codes and graffiti. Plus as we mark Holocaust Memorial Day hearing about new research into the takeover of railways and civic buildings in occupied France from historians Ludivine Broch and Stephanie Hesz-Wood.

Martin Puchner's book is called The Language of Thieves. He teaches English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University Michael Rosen is the author of books including On the Move: Poems about Migration; The Missing - The True Story of My Family in World War II; Mr Mensh and So They Call You Pisher!: A Memoir. Ludivine Broch teaches at the University of Westminster and is an Associate Fellow of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and has written Ordinary Workers, Vichy and the Holocaust. Stephanie Hesz-Wood is researching a PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London called A Spatial History of Drancy: Architecture, Appropriation and Memory

You can hear Ludivine talking to Matthew Sweet about the Gratitude Train - a project of thanks given by ordinary people in France to America for their part in World War II in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hwz9 A discussion about Jewish Identity in 2020 featuring guests at last year's Jewish Book Week Howard Jacobson, Bari Weiss, Hadley Freeman and Jonathan Freedland https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fwqd A discussion about Remembering Auschwitz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dq00 Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeevor from the Pears Institute discussing stereotypes and also anti-Semitism https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050d2 Past programmes for Holocaust Memorial Day hearing from the late David Cesarani, Richard J Evans and Jane Caplan https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0506lp0 Monica Bohm Duchen, Daniel Snowman and Martin Goodman on Art and Refugees from Nazi Germany https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00027m6

Producer: Luke Mulhall