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Research Notes: From Clio’s Elusive World
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263 Research Notes: From Clio’s Elusive World I asked F n about the significance of the name Leon Berger. In French, berger means “shepherd.” But does it have another, more exalted meaning in French culture? She told me that it is a very common name in France, and many Jews adopted it as a replacement for a previous name that sounded too Jewish. It was a good name for assimilating into French society. Her own uncle, she told me, had done just this when he moved to France. But, no, she said, the name has no other meaning in French culture. But what about “Leon”? I sought an answer. The simple meaning of the word is “lion,” a symbol of boldness, heroism, courage, kingship. That is clear. Perhaps he also took the name Leon because that was the name of the first Jew to fall in the Spanish Civil War. Perhaps it also referred to that important Parisian Jew, statesman, and former prime minister, Léon Blum? Leon was a good choice. It offered a good and worthy semantic field. Did he adopt this name because he saw himself, or his friends saw him, as a shepherd, a leader who looks after and protects his flock? I continued to search, and found the following about Leon Berger: In the late 1830s and early 1840s, Heinrich Essig, a town councilor in Leonberg, near Stuttgart, crossed a black and white Newfoundland bitch with a male of the Barry breed from the monastery hospice Grand St. Bernhard. Later a Pyrenean Mountain dog was added. The result was very large dogs with predominantly long, white coats. Essig sought to produce a lion-like animal, a lion being depicted on the Leonberger coat of arms. The first dogs that can be called real Leonbergers were whelped in 1846. They combined the excellent qualities of the breeds from which they stemmed. In short order, dogs from Leonberg were bought up around the world and became status symbols. At the end of the 19th century, the Leonberger became the preferred farm dog in Baden-Württemberg. His watch and draft abilities were much praised. But the breeding stock shrank dramatically during both World Wars and in needy postwar times. Today the Leonberger is considered an excellent family dog that answers to all modern needs. Due to the purpose for which it was originally bred, the Leonberger is a strong, Friling - Jewish Kapo.indb 263 4/11/2014 2:49:07 PM 264 ||| Research Notes muscular, yet elegant dog. It is distinguished by its balanced build and its calm and confident, yet lively, temperament. Males, in particular, are powerful and strong.1 I continued a search for other possible sources of the name, and discovered this: The new guillotine apparatus was composed of two wooden slots through which a sharp and diagonal blade traveled. The new form of the blade was meant to cut the head easily and quickly, rather than strike at it hard like the old apparatus, in order to cut it off. Prior to his execution, the nape of the convict was shaven and he arrived at the killing site in a closed carriage. The convict ascended to the guillotine face forward, his hands tied behind his back and his eyes bare. He was tied with a strap to a vertical wooden board that reached up to his chest. The board turned on a hinge and passed from a horizontal position, when the convict’s head entered the lunette, a circle the diameter of a man’s neck, which held his head in place. The sharp blade would descend rapidly and quickly and cleanly slice off the head, which fell into a basket, ironically called the “picnic basket.” Since the heart was still beating, a powerful jet of blood would spurt out. The execution team would be covered with blood from head to toe, and according to testimonies the place stand and dogs would gather there at night to lick up the blood. The operator of the guillotine would grasp the hair or ears of the convict and present him to the public. In 1870–1872 the guillotine structure was improved by Leon Berger, but remained very similar. Leon Berger was an assistant executioner and carpenter. He improved the guillotine by adding auxiliary mechanism, such as a handle to release the blade, a collapsible base for the body, and a shield meant to prevent blood from spraying on the executioner and his assistant. The...