'One must defend oneself as a Jew': Hannah Arendt's German as a Language of Refuge

Abstract: In a 1964 interview, Hannah Arendt claims never to have given up her 'mother tongue' of German, explaining that 'it wasn't the language that went mad' during Nazi rule. Notable critiques of Arendt's apparent 'nostalgia' in this interview, including by Jacques Derrida, do not account for her notion of plurality or an Arendtian concept of home. I argue that Arendt's position is a defence of both her Jewishness and her refugee experiences. For Arendt to continue to speak German is not regressive, but is consistent with her understanding of the conditions enabling political action.