Эрнст Юнгер: A German Officer in Occupied Paris: The War Journals, 1941-1945

For Head Forester, see note to First Paris Journal , Paris, 1 February 1942.

Reference to the group of friends who met regularly in Paris the Hotel George V.

In his elliptical way, E. J. here expresses regret at what he perceives as the collectivization, that is, politicization, of language by the primitive ideological jargon of National Socialism. The function of the liaison officer would be to act as interpreter.

E. J. quotes her dialect: “ Ek was fertig, as es to Enne was.”

In 1933, Göring appointed Diels to head the new political branch of Geheime Staatspolizei , or Gestapo [Secret State Police]. Caught in the power struggle between Göring and Himmler, Diels was dismissed in 1934. When working in Hannover, he had refused to round up Jews, but he escaped punishment thanks to Göring’s protection.

The so-called People’s Court [ Volksgerichtshof ] was established by Hitler in 1934 to enforce the agenda of the NS party without regard for due legal process. The judge-president E. J. alludes to is Roland Freisler (1893–1945).

Stepan Trofimovich is a character is Dostoevsky’s novel, The Demons (1872).

See note to Second Paris Journal , Paris , 1 September 1943.

Apollo and Artemis killed Niobe’s children because she boasted that, as the mother of so many children, she was thus the equal of Leto.

Johan Peter Eckermann, Conversations with Goethe (1836; 1848).

See Notes from the Caucasus , 23 December 1942.

Popular saying attributed (probably falsely) to Tacitus.

See First Paris Journal , Paris , 5 July 1941.

Thereby changing prendront (will capture) to rendront (give up, return).

See Gospel of Matthew, 25:7. In this parable, the five wise virgins went out to meet the bridegroom with oil in their lamps, while the lamps of the foolish virgins had gone out.

Wicked husbandman, recte: husbandmen or tenants. See Gospel of Matthew 21:33–46; Mark 12:1–12; Luke 20:9–19.

Gospel of Matthew 25:14–30, parable of the servant who buried his master’s talents (unit of currency), rather than increase his fortune through commerce.

Teocalli : the Aztec pyramid, on top of which is the temple where human sacrifice was performed.

Marat: The Russian battleship Petropavlovsk was renamed Marat in 1921 by the Soviets after the radical journalist and politician of the French revolutionary.

E. J. glosses a German proverb about the nature of dreams: “ Träume sind Schäume [Dreams are foam, froth].

E. J. refers to payloads ( Kettenwurf ) dropped from aircraft flying in wedge formations, called the Keil (wedge) or Kette (chain).

E. J.’s word Hundssterne evokes Sirius in the constellation Canis Major, the brightest star visible in the night sky of the northern hemisphere and is thus an appropriate metaphor for aerial flares.

Steller’s Sea Cow ( Hydrodamilas gigas ).

On 29 November 1944, Gretha Jünger, Ernst’s mother, dreamed of having an eyetooth pulled.

The Tannenberg Memorial commemorated the German soldiers who died at the second battle of Tannenberg (1914). The coffin of Paul von Hindenburg, who had commanded the German troops, was placed here in 1934.

Pitcairn: In 1790, the mutineers from the HMS Bounty , together with other Polynesians, settled these islands in the south Pacific.

Reference to a regional verb for splitting that means literally “to split something apart or rive open a log.”

E. J. cites in translation the words of the Roman poet Lucretius (first century BCE), ludibrium pelagis (plaything of the waves).

Houdon; see First Paris Journal , Paris, 9 March 1942 and 14 March 1942.

De Profundis , see Psalm 130: De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine [From the depths, I have cried out to you, O Lord].

The strategy of carpet-bombing, or saturation bombing, was used by both sides in Europe. The goal was to inflict maximum destruction within a specific target area.

Carus is E. J.’s imaginary son. See First Paris Journal , Paris, 18 January 1942.

Guinea worm: parasite ingested by drinking water infested with water fleas.

See Second Paris Journal , Paris, 5 August 1944.

Gospel of Luke 20:27–36.

Diels was actually married to Hermann Göring’s cousin.

Reichsarbeitsdienst [RAD]: The official state labor organization established during the Weimar Republic, originally to counter unemployment, and adapted and expanded after 1933.

Feldmeister : a rank equivalent to lieutenant in the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) .

Gauleiter : a district leader, Gau being an old Frankish term used to designate Nazi Party administrative regions.

Kreisleiter : county leader(s), a Nazi Party administrative rank.

1866: Reference to the Austro-Prussian War or Seven Weeks’ War between the German Confederation lead by the Austrian Empire versus Prussia. The war resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states.

“‘Lannewehrbusch’ of the old Landwehr ”: this patch of forest takes its local name from the Landwehr , the old territorial militia before World War I.

Jena (1806) was a major victory of Napoleon over the Prussian armies; at Sedan (1870), the decisive victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the Germans defeated the French and were thus able to march on to Paris.

E. J. cites Boëthius, The Consolation of Philosophy , as he had earlier on 22 November 1944, but now he has just witnessed a procession of white stars on the armored vehicles of the invaders and, refusing to see this as a symbol of defeat, he reads it as one of hope.