Tryuk, M. (2016). Interpreting and translating in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies, 15, 121–141. Interpreting and translating in Nazi concentration camps during World War II Małgorzata Tryuk University of Warsaw, Poland m.tryuk@uw.edu.pl This article investigates translation and interpreting in a conflict situation with reference to the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In particular, it examines the need for such services and the duties and the tasks the translators and the interpreters were forced to execute. It is based on archival material, in particular the recollections and the statements of former inmates collected in the archives of concentration camps. The ontological narratives are compared with the cinematic figure of Marta Weiss, a camp interpreter, as presented in the docudrama “Ostatni Etap” (“The last Stage”) of 1948 by the Polish director Wanda Jakubowska, herself a former prisoner of the concentration camp. The article contributes to the discussion on the role that translators and interpreters play in extreme and violent situations when the ethics of interpreting and translation loses its power and the generally accepted norms and standards are no longer applicable. 1. Introduction Studies on the roles of translators and interpreters in conflict situations have been undertaken by numerous scholars since 1980. They have produced valuable insights into the subject which include various types of study of an empirical, analytical or theoretical nature (Baker & Maier, 2011). These studies encompass, inter alia, reports on interpreting at the trials of the Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg (Bowen & Bowen, 1985; Gaiba, 1998); in the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal for Far East (Takeda, 2007; Watanabe, 2009), at Eichmann’s trial in Jerusalem (Morris, 1998); at the hearings conducted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa (Wiegand, 2000) and before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Haas, 2011); at the UNO peace missions in Lebanon and the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Thomas, 1997); and in the humanitarian missions of NGOs as well as in the armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan (Arciszewska, 2013; Capelli, 2014; Guidère, 2008; Stahuljak, 2000, 2010; Szymczukiewicz, 2005). Scholars who have done research on empirical and theoretical aspects of translation and interpreting have tried to reveal the ethical norms binding on a translator and an interpreter in his or her work. These norms are deontological and