Naming and language

Language means power. With words we define and order our world; we try to make it “tangible” for us. The application, but also the rejection of certain concepts shapes our social reality and is therefore a direct intervention in our understanding of reality.

The public debate about gender-sensitive language is just one example of how language changes and adapts with society. But also the naming of countries and cities and the spellings or translations used in each case can represent a confirmation or a challenge of power relations or represent the existence of parallel, conflicting or divergent and competing frames of interpretation. More recently, “Weißrussland” has also become “Belarus” in German, while the spelling “belarusisch” is currently used in parallel with “belarussisch”.¹ Especially in discourses of remembrance politics, names and designations of countries, cities or localities often become an articulation of power through language, or reproduce traditional interpretations and descriptions of historical facts that are taken from source documents.

Propaganda photo of the fortified village "KL Trostenieze"

Excerpt from Otto Goldapp's survey

The Belarusian village of Maly Trascjanec has many names in both German- and English-speaking countries: Malyj Trostenez² or Maly Trostinez³, to name just two of many examples. These probably most common designations are transliterations, which – often onomatopoeic – are based on the Russian-language name of the village: “Малый Тростенец”. Other spellings that differ from this can be found, for example, in the files and photographs of the German occupation authorities⁴ – i.e. perpetrator files – or in the minutes of trials before German courts after 1945, in which witnesses referred to the location.⁵

The choice of spelling in literature and in different languages is often based on customs and habits or on spellings found in historical documents. Often there is little reflection on why the choice of spelling is made and how it is received by different readers.

Excerpt from Otto Drews' interrogation protocol

Excerpt from Arthur Harder's interrogation record

The choice of spelling from the files of the German perpetrators repeats or reproduces a different perception of “Malyj Trostenets” than the use of a linguistically verified transliteration from Russian. In the case of "Malyj Trostenets", as in so many other places, the history of the region itself plays a role: By choosing a Russian spelling to designate a place in Belarus, past claims to power from the time of Russian and Soviet rule are reproduced linguistically. Conversely, it is of course also necessary to critically reflect on the return to older or alternative names or the creation of new names for places.

The history of the country of Belarus – which was long referred to as “Weißrussland” in German-speaking countries and has now been able to assert itself as “Belarus” after a long linguistic phase of negotiations – is characterized by occupation and foreign rule. What does this mean for speaking and writing about Belarus? Does the reproduction of a German transliteration in use before 1945 reproduce the perspective of the perpetrators? Does the use of a Russian transliteration jeopardize Belarusian sovereignty?

Book cover Vernichtungsort
Malyj Trostenez

So how does language, through the naming of places, become an instrument of social and memory-political discourse?

As part of the project "The digital development of the Maly Trostenez extermination site" in cooperation with the Leonid Lewin History Workshop in Minsk, the University of Vienna and the University of Osnabrück, the working group decided to transliterate the Belarusian name "Малы Трасцянец". The name of the forest clearing near the village, where thousands of people were murdered, can also be read in Belarusian transliteration on the following exhibition pages. “Malyj Trostenets” becomes Maly Trascjanec, Blagovshchina becomes Blahaǔščyna and Shashkovka becomes Šaškoǔka.

We therefore do not use historical place names in our presentation, but rather the spellings of these place names currently used in Belarus.

Currently used spellings of Maly Trascjanec: Malyj Trostenez, Maly Trostinez, Maly Trostinec, Maly Traszjanez.

Currently used spellings of Šaškoǔka: Schaschkowka, Schaschkova, Schaschkowa, Schaschkouka.

Currently used spellings for Blahaǔščyna: Blagowschtschina, Blagowschina, Blagovśćina, Blahausschtschyna.