Sonderbehandlung
German
editEtymology
editFrom sonder- (“special”) + Behandlung (“treatment”).
The Nazis used the word as code during the early stages of the Holocaust. By the time of the creation of the extermination camps it was already too widely understood and, as a codeword, replaced by terms such as Evakuierung (“evacuation”) and Durchschleusung (“channeling, passage”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editSonderbehandlung f (genitive Sonderbehandlung, plural Sonderbehandlungen)
- (literal) special treatment
- Es darf hier keine Sonderbehandlung für Einzelne geben, sondern gleiches Recht für alle.
- There mustn't be any special treatment for individuals, but one law for all.
- (historical, Nazism, euphemistic) extermination, killing, extrajudicial execution
Usage notes
edit- The literal sense is widely used and per se unproblematic. However, it should definitely be avoided in any context that is somehow suggestive of Nazism or its victims.
Declension
editDeclension of Sonderbehandlung [feminine]
singular | plural | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
indef. | def. | noun | def. | noun | |
nominative | eine | die | Sonderbehandlung | die | Sonderbehandlungen |
genitive | einer | der | Sonderbehandlung | der | Sonderbehandlungen |
dative | einer | der | Sonderbehandlung | den | Sonderbehandlungen |
accusative | eine | die | Sonderbehandlung | die | Sonderbehandlungen |
Further reading
edit- “Sonderbehandlung” in Duden online
- Sonderbehandlung on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia de
- Sonderbehandlung on Wikipedia.Wikipedia