The Language of Thieves: My Family's Obsession with a Secret Code the Nazis Tried to Eliminate, by Martin Puchner, is a fascinating book about one family and their ambiguous relationship to the German language and Nazism.
Pucher explores Rotwelsch, a so-called language of thieves, or better yet a language of a marginal group (or groups) of people who were homeless or otherwise unsettled. The language has as long history. It was noted by Martin Luther and remained well into the twentieth century. It contains many Hebrew words through a Yiddish lens, some Romani expressions - but is basically German in structure and vocabulary.
I expected some big reveal from Pucher about the fixation of certain members of his family toward Rotwelsch. Where they once part of this sub-world? Secret Jews or Roma? No. They were just caught up in complexity of German identity in the twentieth century and this is their story. And a fine story it is.
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