arbeitsflüchtig

English translation: failure to report to work

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	arbeitsflüchtig
English translation:	failure to report to work
Entered by:	franglish

12:33 Feb 10, 2015

German to English translations [PRO]
Social Sciences - History / WW II, labour camps

German term or phrase: arbeitsflüchtig

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"

silvia glatzhofer KudoZ activity Questions: 1043 (9 open) (8 without valid answers) (38 closed without grading) Answers: 641
Local time: 03:02

failure to report to work

Explanation:
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...

Selected response from:

franglish
Switzerland
Local time: 03:02

Grading comment

thank you!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +4

absented self from work party

Lancashireman

3 +3

absconded

Johanna Timm, PhD

3 +2

failure to report to work

franglish

3 +1

fled work detail

Michael Martin, MA

Discussion entries: 10

Lancashireman

United Kingdom

Preferred wording gives wrong sequence of events

16:47 Feb 11, 2015

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

10:18 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)

United States

Work "no-shows" or Work escaped

01:25 Feb 11, 2015

As this is from a prison camp, I would use the latter.

Elisabeth Kissel

Australia

This is how I read it

21:37 Feb 10, 2015

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

United Kingdom

By analogy with Fahnenflucht, Republikflucht (DDR)

20:53 Feb 10, 2015

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

Australia

'Failure to report' definitely works for me

20:43 Feb 10, 2015

.. because it is so neutral, almost clinical. If anything, 'fled' or 'escaped' might be used for the second term in the list.

Edith Kelly

Switzerland

Welcome

17:23 Feb 10, 2015

now we have a Lancashireman in addition to a Yorkshireman. I will call myself a County Dublin gal.

Lancashireman

United Kingdom

The context is bureaucratese

17:21 Feb 10, 2015

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

Switzerland

has anyone read the context

17:16 Feb 10, 2015

AWOL? my ..... That was life or death, so absented?

Edith Kelly

Switzerland

Phil

17:15 Feb 10, 2015

just post "escaped from" and I will agree. Absented? Well, flee or be killed. Does not sound like "absented".

Answers

10 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

absented self from work party

Explanation:
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

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

Lancashireman
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 252

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

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

17 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

failure to report to work

franglish
Switzerland
Local time: 03:02
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 32

Grading comment

thank you!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

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

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

fled work detail

Explanation:
Seems to fit the context best. Was almost tempted to use "went AWOL"..

Michael Martin, MA
United States
Local time: 21:02
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

German,

English
PRO pts in category: 74

8 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

absconded

Explanation:
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

Johanna Timm, PhD
Canada
Local time: 18:02
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 60

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English translation: failure to report to work

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English translation: failure to report to work

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