The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #65837   Message #1090099
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
10-Jan-04 - 03:35 PM
Thread Name: BS: False advertising by the RNC
Subject: RE: BS: False advertising by the RNC
"Kristallnacht" doesn't come across to me as a euphemism of any kind. If it was invented by the perpetrators,with that in mind, it turned against them, as so often happens. The contrast between what happened and what should be a beautiful word seems to bring the horror across even more powerfully.

It also carries the message of something broken which can never be repaired. The word almost makes you hear it and see it, once you've learnt what it refers to. "Reichspogromnacht" sounds bureaucratic, distanced, filed away.