Les midis de la recherche : Interpreting and interpreters in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and in the Nuremberg Trial (1945-1946)

In this lecture Jesús Baigorri-Jalón intend to cover two events in the history of interpreting, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (a prelude to World War Two) and the 80th anniversary of the end of the primary Nuremberg Trial, whose sentences were pronounced on October 1st, and executed on October 16th, 1946. His perspective is that of a historian-interpreter (histerpreter) who has been digging in the past of a function or a trade, that of interpreters, before and after it became a profession as we know it. For his research I have drawn on a variety of sources: those found in a number of archives, interviews to interpreters or their surviving relatives, memoirs and secondary sources.

The two events have different typologies of interpreters, as he will try to illustrate with a series of examples. In the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) bilinguals or polyglots were necessary to facilitate communication in a truly international conflict, where both sides received international aid: troops in the tens of thousands were sent by Hitler, Mussolini and Salazar to help Franco; the Loyalist Republican government got the support of Soviet advisers (fifty percent of the 200 interpreters who accompanied them were women!) and of some 35 thousand volunteers from 53 countries enlisted in the International Brigades. Those who played the role of interpreters in the war were called to act under difficult working conditions, often risking their lives, and in a great variety of settings in the rear-guard and at the front, interrogating prisoners, assisting wounded soldiers in hospitals, gathering intelligence, etc.

The Nuremberg International Military Tribunal is usually associated with the beginning of simultaneous interpreting, although that modality had been tested and used in the late 1920s at the International Labour Organisation and in the International Communist (Comintern). Interpreters for 4 languages (English, French, German and Russian) were recruited in a rush to meet the deadline established by the members of the Court (Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States). They came from different socio-professional environments and had to face several challenges: technical (most of them had never practiced interpreting, let alone the simultaneous mode), linguistic (specialized language, but not only; different legal systems), ethical (professional code of ethics; their war experience) and emotional (the defendants whose depositions they had to interpret were at times responsible for the interpreters’ and their relatives’ imprisonment or even death in concentration camps for the latter).

Even if many decades have elapsed and thousands of books or articles have been published on both events, interpreters have been, by and large, absent from conventional historical research. Thus, there are still many gaps to be filled in the field of the history of interpreting.

Jesús Baigorri-Jalón 

Born in Alberite, La Rioja (Spain), in 1953, Jesús Baigorri-Jalón is Associate professor (retired since 2013) at the Department of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Salamanca. Founding member of the Alfaqueque Research Group (2008). Staff verbatim reporter (1989-1992) and interpreter (1992-1999) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Master’s degree in History (1975) and PhD in Translation and Interpretation (1998), University of Salamanca. Teacher of History in Salamanca (1978-1985) and London (1985-1989). Author and/or editor of a dozen books on interpreting and translation and of numerous articles. Guest lecturer and panelist on translation and interpreting issues in several universities and other institutions.

^{_{Photo credit : Nuremberg International Military Tribunal: interpreters section  - Ray D'ADDARIO/USHMM, courtesy of National Archives [public domain]}}