They tried to steal our language, too

They tried to steal our language, too

In 1944, as the Nazi-backed Hungarian regime swept through Jewish homes in Budapest and beyond, the looting was not limited to silverware, paintings or jewelry. They also stole our language. Among the thousands of personal items cataloged by Hungarian officials were books titled Jiddische Sprachlehre (Yiddish Grammar) and Jiddische Geschichten (Yiddish Stories) — quiet but powerful traces of a living language on the brink of annihilation. These …