Hello,
My boredom has been getting the better of me lately, as I have the pleasure of an entire summer off of work due to University studies. Since I have very little to actually do around the house this summer and don't have to go to work, I've been considering finally cracking open my copy of "Soldaten wie andere auch" by Paul Hauser. I've been meaning to sit down and read it for quite a few years now but just never have gotten around to it, I bought it originally when I first learned to read basic German, thinking that having materials in German in a subject that I was interested in would encourage me to actually study, but instead it ended up being a bit too complex for me to read at the time, and it has literally been languishing in my basement study since I was 14.
For those unfamiliar, it is more or less a primer on the SS, a sort of miniature biography of Mr. Hauser, information on individual units, and a condemnation of their treatment after the war all rolled into one volume divided into 5 major parts.
1. The Waffen-SS before the war
2. The Waffen-SS during the war
3. The Waffen-SS after the war
4. Documentation section
5. A short history of the Armies, Headquarters and divisions of the SS
It has long been considered one of the great books about the SS as it includes far fewer subjective observations and more objective materials for the reader to base their own opinion on and come to their own conclusion, it is very much a "Here is the documentation that you seek. Draw your own conclusion from what you've read" kind of books, it is of course bias towards the SS soldiers and their struggle, as it was written by one of their own, but it is definitely a historically viable source of information and would serve the community well.
The problem is, of course, that the book only exists at this point in German, and while there are many German speakers the world over, it would be beneficial for there to be an English language translation, and although I am definitely not "Fluent" by any stretch of the imagination, I definitely can read German at a respectable level and this book doesn't seem to put up too much of a fight as far as obscure words or old grammar rules go, it seems to be a very straightforward read, and I want to make a viable English language translation of it in .PDF form, and in the process would be able to produce a .PDF version of the original version as well. If it ever became popular enough that people were to want physical bound copies of it, it could definitely be done and I could secure rights to publish a translation but that is a bridge that can be crossed much later, if at all.
I've also yet to find a scanned version of the book, which would help me immensely in my quest to translate it, as formatting, retyping the original book and picture set would easily be half the work, if not more. I once had a company create an "E-book' version for me off of my copy, but it turned out absolutely horrible, just a bunch of bad scans of the pages stuck together into a .pdf document. I feel that it really just needs to be retyped into a modern format unfortunately.
I am starting to ramble, but I do genuinely want to do this, as it seems like a good time and would be helpful to the community as a whole.
The question that I am trying to ask, what is the community's level of interest?
Does anyone want to read this book that can't read it in its original language?
Does the growing difficulty in securing copies of the original printings of this book warrant an electronic edition or possible reprints of the translation in the far off future?
Would the translation of this book into English help the true collectors community more than it would help further the neo-nazis and their agenda?
That is the one true worry I do have with this project, I don't want to give revisionists and neo-nazi's more materials to work with, and this is the kind of material they love to have. Books about the "tender side" of the SS, claims that they were not all bad, ect... Information like that is very easy for them to twist into new things, and I don't want to help further their goals. The great majority of revisionists don't speak German, and that means that the information is largely safer and less harmful in its original format, it is also hard to obtain original printings of the book outside of Germany, even more so if you don't understand enough German to buy it from a store in Germany, which is where the greatest majority of the copies still reside. The biggest question is "Will a digitalization and translation of this text into English cause more harm than good?"
I'm looking for any input anyone has on this, everyone interested in any way please speak their piece, tell me if you are for or against this, and if you feel strongly about it, why or why not?
If you are interested in a translation, please tell me how you'd most like to see the release of the book. Would it be preferred in sections, released by chapter? Perhaps in parts 1 through 5, or would it be preferred to hold out for a finished edition all complete? I imagine that I will be doing most of the actual PDF work in Adobe Acrobat, and most of the word processing and formatting in Microsoft Word, although it could just as easily be all done in Acrobat.
Lets hear some opinions!
As always a pleasure,
my Regards
Alexander B.
My boredom has been getting the better of me lately, as I have the pleasure of an entire summer off of work due to University studies. Since I have very little to actually do around the house this summer and don't have to go to work, I've been considering finally cracking open my copy of "Soldaten wie andere auch" by Paul Hauser. I've been meaning to sit down and read it for quite a few years now but just never have gotten around to it, I bought it originally when I first learned to read basic German, thinking that having materials in German in a subject that I was interested in would encourage me to actually study, but instead it ended up being a bit too complex for me to read at the time, and it has literally been languishing in my basement study since I was 14.
For those unfamiliar, it is more or less a primer on the SS, a sort of miniature biography of Mr. Hauser, information on individual units, and a condemnation of their treatment after the war all rolled into one volume divided into 5 major parts.
1. The Waffen-SS before the war
2. The Waffen-SS during the war
3. The Waffen-SS after the war
4. Documentation section
5. A short history of the Armies, Headquarters and divisions of the SS
It has long been considered one of the great books about the SS as it includes far fewer subjective observations and more objective materials for the reader to base their own opinion on and come to their own conclusion, it is very much a "Here is the documentation that you seek. Draw your own conclusion from what you've read" kind of books, it is of course bias towards the SS soldiers and their struggle, as it was written by one of their own, but it is definitely a historically viable source of information and would serve the community well.
The problem is, of course, that the book only exists at this point in German, and while there are many German speakers the world over, it would be beneficial for there to be an English language translation, and although I am definitely not "Fluent" by any stretch of the imagination, I definitely can read German at a respectable level and this book doesn't seem to put up too much of a fight as far as obscure words or old grammar rules go, it seems to be a very straightforward read, and I want to make a viable English language translation of it in .PDF form, and in the process would be able to produce a .PDF version of the original version as well. If it ever became popular enough that people were to want physical bound copies of it, it could definitely be done and I could secure rights to publish a translation but that is a bridge that can be crossed much later, if at all.
I've also yet to find a scanned version of the book, which would help me immensely in my quest to translate it, as formatting, retyping the original book and picture set would easily be half the work, if not more. I once had a company create an "E-book' version for me off of my copy, but it turned out absolutely horrible, just a bunch of bad scans of the pages stuck together into a .pdf document. I feel that it really just needs to be retyped into a modern format unfortunately.
I am starting to ramble, but I do genuinely want to do this, as it seems like a good time and would be helpful to the community as a whole.
The question that I am trying to ask, what is the community's level of interest?
Does anyone want to read this book that can't read it in its original language?
Does the growing difficulty in securing copies of the original printings of this book warrant an electronic edition or possible reprints of the translation in the far off future?
Would the translation of this book into English help the true collectors community more than it would help further the neo-nazis and their agenda?
That is the one true worry I do have with this project, I don't want to give revisionists and neo-nazi's more materials to work with, and this is the kind of material they love to have. Books about the "tender side" of the SS, claims that they were not all bad, ect... Information like that is very easy for them to twist into new things, and I don't want to help further their goals. The great majority of revisionists don't speak German, and that means that the information is largely safer and less harmful in its original format, it is also hard to obtain original printings of the book outside of Germany, even more so if you don't understand enough German to buy it from a store in Germany, which is where the greatest majority of the copies still reside. The biggest question is "Will a digitalization and translation of this text into English cause more harm than good?"
I'm looking for any input anyone has on this, everyone interested in any way please speak their piece, tell me if you are for or against this, and if you feel strongly about it, why or why not?
If you are interested in a translation, please tell me how you'd most like to see the release of the book. Would it be preferred in sections, released by chapter? Perhaps in parts 1 through 5, or would it be preferred to hold out for a finished edition all complete? I imagine that I will be doing most of the actual PDF work in Adobe Acrobat, and most of the word processing and formatting in Microsoft Word, although it could just as easily be all done in Acrobat.
Lets hear some opinions!
As always a pleasure,
my Regards
Alexander B.
If anyone wanted to donate to the cost of having the original book digitalized that would be a nice perk! (Not asking for a donation as of yet) I'd like to provide this freely to the community, though.
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