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Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

arbeitsflüchtig

English translation:

failure to report to work

Added to glossary by franglish
Feb 10, 2015 12:33
9 yrs ago
German term

arbeitsflüchtig

German to English Social Sciences History WW II, labour camps
Report about a forced labour camp listing the names of several people who escaped from the camp.

AA, 22.2.1942, "arbeitsflüchtig"
BB, 17.11. 1943 „flüchtig nach unbekannt"
CC, 14.3.1943, "Abmeldung wegen Arbeitsflucht“
DD, „arbeitsflüchtig u. derzt. unbekannt"
Proposed translations (English)
3 +2 failure to report to work
3 +4 absented self from work party
3 +3 absconded
3 +1 fled work detail
Change log

Feb 17, 2015 13:37: franglish Created KOG entry

Discussion

Lancashireman Feb 11, 2015:
Preferred wording gives wrong sequence of events An inmate of a forced labour camp who 'failed to report for work' would be quickly found and disciplined. This is about inmates who 'reported for work' and then absented themselves from the work party outside the gates, i.e. they failed to report back in after work.
silvia glatzhofer (asker) Feb 11, 2015:
Thank you all. My original translation (before I posted the question) was "absconded", but was unsure because of the cycnical euphemisms that were used at that time. So I tend to prefer the "failure to report for work" solution
billcorno (X) Feb 11, 2015:
Work "no-shows" or Work escaped As this is from a prison camp, I would use the latter.
Elisabeth Kissel Feb 10, 2015:
This is how I read it Actually, they probably did have to 'report for work' before they were sent outside the camp in work crews. The fact they simply 'didn't turn up' is therefore the initial assessment.
Absconded it also good, but implies that you already know why they're not there.
Anyway, that's how I interpreted it.
Lancashireman Feb 10, 2015:
By analogy with Fahnenflucht, Republikflucht (DDR) These compound nouns/adjectives all contain within them the concept of desertion or going absent without leave. 'Failure to report for work/duty' does not fully capture this meaning. Moreover, the option of failing to turn up for work inside a forced labour camp would not have existed. Even clerical staff casting around for a euphemism wouldn't have considered this appropriate.
Elisabeth Kissel Feb 10, 2015:
'Failure to report' definitely works for me .. because it is so neutral, almost clinical. If anything, 'fled' or 'escaped' might be used for the second term in the list.
Edith Kelly Feb 10, 2015:
Welcome now we have a Lancashireman in addition to a Yorkshireman. I will call myself a County Dublin gal.
Lancashireman Feb 10, 2015:
The context is bureaucratese Unlikely that clerks would have used emotive terms such as 'fled' or even 'escaped', either of which would have suggested that the inmates were improperly detained.
Edith Kelly Feb 10, 2015:
has anyone read the context AWOL? my ..... That was life or death, so absented?
Edith Kelly Feb 10, 2015:
Phil just post "escaped from" and I will agree. Absented? Well, flee or be killed. Does not sound like "absented".

Proposed translations

+2
17 mins
Selected

failure to report to work

The commonest causes of punishment were failure to report to work, avoidance of work, leaving one’s place of work without permission, sabotage at work,

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Note added at 18 mins (2015-02-10 12:52:44 GMT)
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http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschwitz...
Peer comment(s):
neutral Lancashireman : "Report about a forced labour camp listing the names of several people who escaped from the camp." // Failure to report to work. Excuse: Alarm clock didn't ring. Warden: OK, make sure you're on time tomorrow.
3 mins
I'm perfectly aware of that. Escapes also took place during the night. The question here might be wether this was a labour camp for prisoners of war or for "undesirables" such as Roma, gays, Jews etc., in which case conditions would have been quite differ
agree Helen Shiner : Certainly with 'failure to report to work'. A handy acronym would help, wouldn't it?
7 mins
So it would, Helen! On the other hand, the Germans didn't call a cat a cat...
agree Edith Kelly
4 hrs
But that's exactly the point, Edith, they did use euphemisms!
agree Elisabeth Kissel : I actually think this is the best solution. It is exactly the sort of euphemism that was used (as you've pointed out just above).
7 hrs
Thanks, Elisabeth. They did have to line up in ranks of ten for easier counting before being escorted to the work site.
disagree Yorkshireman : Failure to report to work sounds much too voluntary - no one reported for work - they were either there, or they weren’t - and had to face the consequences.
6 days
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thank you!"
+4
10 mins

absented self from work party

Presumably, they took their chance while working outside the gates.
Another possibility which is short and sweet: AWOL (= absent without leave)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertion

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 12 mins (2015-02-10 12:46:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Court of Enquiry held at No. 10 Military Prison, Dunkirk, on, 17 January 1918, declared that the soldier illegally absented himself by escaping from a work party of Royal Naval Air Service on, 17 January 1918, and that he is still absent.
https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=40261
Peer comment(s):
agree Kathi Stock : I would also think that they escaped when working outside the camp
1 min
agree Helen Shiner
11 mins
neutral gangels (X) : sounds a bit stilted
1 hr
Hi, Klaus. 'Fled' sounds over-dramatic: we do not know whether the escapee dodged a hail of bullets or simply sneaked off unobserved. Also, 'work detail' is exclusively American usage.
agree philgoddard : Or just "escaped from".
2 hrs
neutral Michael Martin, MA : If German bureaucrats had used a similarly stiff euphemism, I would have been okay with this, but as it is, this seems a bit of a stretch
6 hrs
Hi, Mike. 'Fled' sounds over-dramatic: we do not know whether the escapee dodged a hail of bullets or simply sneaked off unobserved. Also, 'work detail' is exclusively American usage.
agree Yorkshireman : Sounds good to me
6 days
Something went wrong...
+1
1 hr

fled work detail

Seems to fit the context best. Was almost tempted to use "went AWOL"..
Peer comment(s):
agree gangels (X) : sounds most natural
13 mins
Would have thought this fits the exact register and wording of the original but then I hear “fled” is emotive (“flüchtig” apparently isn’t) and “work detail” is restricted to users of US English as if that were some weird variant that few people use...
neutral Edith Kelly : depends whether BE or AM, certainly not BE
3 hrs
Something went wrong...
+3
8 hrs

absconded

During the second phase (July-December 1942), three members of the 'death brigade', Birder, Bracht and Velser, escaped at the time of the exhumation/cremation operation. The rest survived either by absconding from work duties outside the camp, or by being transferred to other camps.

http://tomashov.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/belzec_rep...

Forms of dissent:
[…]
• Distributing anti-Nazi leaflets
• Underachieving in the workplace
• Absconding from work

www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/.../hi136-lec.12.ppt

Leslie doubted his courage that afternoon. But when the time came, he and the other forced laborer escaped from the camp. “ He wasn’t Jewish, by the way”, Leslie added.” But these people they were taking slave labor, and they didn’t concern themselves with who you were.[… the following day, rumours circulated that people who had absconded from work details would be summarily executed.”
http://goo.gl/W64AYt

Interesting terminology resource:
Arbeitsflucht absconding (literally „work flight“), a term in legal parlance of the labor administration bureaucracy for the criminal offense of running off from one’s work place.
http://goo.gl/ajAnr9

Peer comment(s):
agree Lancashireman : Passt // BTW: Thank you for the exceptional interest you show in questions where I have ventured an answer. However, the fact that your ‘agrees’ are inevitably and exclusively posted for alternative solutions gives me considerable cause for self-doubt.
12 mins
freut mich
agree heidi (X) : or 'absconding'. // 'due to abscondence'
8 hrs
yes, I would use that for Silvia's third example, i.e. 'due to absconding'
agree Yorkshireman : Like it! - absconding from work details
6 days
thanks.
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