In his latest "Memo" blog, Jansson claims that
The Luther bible passage that Jansson refers to is the following:
While Jansson claims that the term ausgerottet means expulsion or exile in the above-quoted context, the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch lists the above-quoted version of Genesis 17.14 as one example of the use of ausrotten in the sense of "jn. (Einzelpersonen oder Gruppen) töten, physisch vernichten, ausrotten", i.e. "to kill, physically destroy, exterminate someone (individual persons or groups)".
Needless to say, the understanding of the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch carries more weight than Jansson’s self-serving interpretation.
As to the other sources adduced by Jansson for a supposed non-homicidal meaning of ausrotten or Ausrottung when describing something done or to be done to a group of people, I’d have to check the sources to determine whether Jansson’s reading thereof is or not as far-fetched as his understanding of Luther’s words in his translation of Genesis 17.14.
That aside, one must question the relevance of Jansson’s linguistic exercise when determining in what sense, literal or figurative, a Nazi bigwig used the terms ausrotten, ausgerottet or Ausrottung (or, for that matter, the terms ausmerzen, ausgemerzt or Ausmerzung) in a given context on a particular occasion.
Even if either of these terms could also be used, even literally, in a sense not implying homicide, this wouldn’t change the fact that, say, the context in which Rosenberg used the term "biologische Ausmerzung" on the occasion discussed here, considering a previous statement of Rosenberg’s, implies that he was using this term in a sense of mass murder.
Or that, as shown here, the terms ausgerottet, Ausrottung and auszurotten, used by, respectively, Fegelein, Frank and Himmler in the examples quoted here, had a clearly homicidal meaning.
In the Luther Bible translation of Genesis 17.14, it is commanded that the uncircumcised be ausgerottet, with the meaning that they be removed from the people, or exiled.
The Luther bible passage that Jansson refers to is the following:
Und wo ein Knäblein nicht wird beschnitten an der Vorhaut seines Fleisches, des Seele soll ausgerottet werden aus seinem Volk, darum daß es meinen Bund unterlassen hat.
While Jansson claims that the term ausgerottet means expulsion or exile in the above-quoted context, the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch lists the above-quoted version of Genesis 17.14 as one example of the use of ausrotten in the sense of "jn. (Einzelpersonen oder Gruppen) töten, physisch vernichten, ausrotten", i.e. "to kill, physically destroy, exterminate someone (individual persons or groups)".
Needless to say, the understanding of the Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch carries more weight than Jansson’s self-serving interpretation.
As to the other sources adduced by Jansson for a supposed non-homicidal meaning of ausrotten or Ausrottung when describing something done or to be done to a group of people, I’d have to check the sources to determine whether Jansson’s reading thereof is or not as far-fetched as his understanding of Luther’s words in his translation of Genesis 17.14.
That aside, one must question the relevance of Jansson’s linguistic exercise when determining in what sense, literal or figurative, a Nazi bigwig used the terms ausrotten, ausgerottet or Ausrottung (or, for that matter, the terms ausmerzen, ausgemerzt or Ausmerzung) in a given context on a particular occasion.
Even if either of these terms could also be used, even literally, in a sense not implying homicide, this wouldn’t change the fact that, say, the context in which Rosenberg used the term "biologische Ausmerzung" on the occasion discussed here, considering a previous statement of Rosenberg’s, implies that he was using this term in a sense of mass murder.
Or that, as shown here, the terms ausgerottet, Ausrottung and auszurotten, used by, respectively, Fegelein, Frank and Himmler in the examples quoted here, had a clearly homicidal meaning.