Image talk:Gestapo anti-gay telex.jpg

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<Moved from User talk:Jmabel> Hi Joe,

I've tried to translate the central piece of text from the telex. Can you have a look if this is correct English?

"Herewith I order protective custody for the mentioned above until further notice. The order of protective custody is to be issued as follows: by bespeaking that, through having made advances with reprehensible intention at a marine member dwelling on vacation, he is not willing to abide by the orders enacted for the protection of the people's health and the German youth." --Amys 20:25, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Sounds awful from a linguistic point of view, but so it does in German! Translating it less literally, one could write:

"Herewith I order protective custody for the mentioned above until further notice. The order of protective custody is to be issued as follows: by having made advances with reprehensible intention at a marine member dwelling on vacation he bespeaks that he is not willing to abide by the orders enacted for the protection of the people's health and the German youth." --Amys 20:32, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

<end moved text>

Schutzhaftbefehl can mean either "protective custody" or "preventive detention". The former refers to taking someone into custody for that person's own protection (e.g. when they are liable to be lynched by a mob) the latter to holding someone prisoner to deprive that person of the opportunity to commit more crimes. Clearly in this context it is the latter, although the mix of both concepts under one term may have made for a nice euphemism in German. Also unverbesserlicher is equivalent in legal terminology (if not in etymology) to "incorrigible".

Oh, I totally forgot that part of the sentence! ;-) --Amys 22:43, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm not at all sure of Hauftprüfuntstermin; I'm guessing "mass examination" but I suspect that's not quite right. Any guesses?

I don't know what the English term might be, but it means something like: the "main review date" (when someone, for example a judge, checks the validity of the detention order, but I don't know who did this in Nazi Germany – perhaps the Gestapo itself). --Amys 22:32, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

That and a few more felicitous choices of English words give what I've now added to the image page. Feel free to improve it. -- Jmabel 22:06, Sep 9, 2004 (UTC)

I wouldn't include the original German text, because it can be read directly from the image. --Amys 22:36, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] copyright status

I see that someone has recently added a notice questioning the copyright status of this item. Frankly, given its nature (a government telex from Nazi Germany), I can't imagine that there is a copyright issue. At the time I uploaded it, it came from de:Bild:Einweisung.jpg, but that's now gone. That seems to have been replaced by de:Bild:Schutzhaftbefehl.jpg, which claims it to be public domain, which seems correct to me. I would suggest that any further inquiries be made there. -- Jmabel | Talk 23:10, Jun 25, 2005 (UTC)