Max Fuchs’ notebook for learning French

In terms of linguistic diversity alone, Europe has 143 languages that evolved on the continent, complemented by more than 250 immigrant languages. Europe is not the most linguistically diverse continent, being home only to 2.2% of the world’s languages. Unique to Europe, however, is the way languages have been standardised for centuries. Trying to learn a new language in war-torn Europe, while being a refugee and a Jew, was a sign of hope and determination. Max Fuchs was part of an important wave of post-First World War Jewish international migration from eastern Europe. Poland was the largest source with about 400,000 emigrants recorded. Most east-European Jews spoke Yiddish at home, German if they lived in an urban community in the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War and the national languages of neighbouring populations. We do not know for certain which languages Max Fuchs spoke, but he was certainly fluent in German, as shown by his correspondence with friends and family from Poland. He might have spoken Polish and Ukrainian, the languages of the two biggest communities of his hometown Przemyśl. In 1943, Max Fuchs was also learning French. The first French verb on the first page of the notebook is ‘mourir’ (to die). Together with this notebook, his documents contain notes and draft letters written in French. He did not live to see his efforts bear fruit as he was arrested and deported from Belgium to Auschwitz, a death camp less than 300 kilometres from his hometown Przemyśl.