Nov 232011
As names for carnival rides go, “Cyclone” seems an obvious one. And probably an overused one, along with “Hurricane,” and “Tornado” and whatnot. So it would make sense that carnival owners would change things up by giving their rides the expected sort of name, but in a foreign language.
Sometimes, though, that’s not such a swift idea. Like, say, a carnival in Florida, which has a high percentage of Jewish citizens, and a fair number of Holocaust survivors. Not the best place to use the *German* word for “Cyclone:”
“Zyklon.”
If you’ve got any knowledge of history, that word is juuuuuuuust a little creepifyin.’
Broward fair ride shares name with Holocaust poison gas
D’oh.
8 Responses to “Ooops…”
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The hydrogen cyanide Gas used in the Shoah is called “Zyklon-B”
as Tradename for “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH” in 1922
still manufacture under name “Uragan D2” in the Czech Republic
by the way, Uragan is czech word for Cyclone…
“Uragan” is the Russian word for hurricane; is this the literal meaning of the Czech word? Of course, in English “hurricane” and “cyclone” are synonyms for the same meteorological phenomenon, applied depending where the huge circular storm occurs.
I do think I’d avoid naming something “Zyklon” unless I were in a German-speaking region.
Yeah, that’s a big oops.
The Typhoon export name for Eurofighter was selected primarily because it was felt to follow the ‘wind’ theme of the Tornado and was echoing the wartime fighter-bomber was a lucky coincidence for the RAF. An urban legend has it that Cyclone (Zyklon) was also a contender until the German realised that if the single seater was the Zyklon-A the two-seater would be then the ….
Following this logic, there should not be any jewish citizens living in Germany, just because the germans were responsible for designing and and executing the holocaust.
I think the ride is OK with this name – Cyclone still stands for a cyclone as a meteorological phenomena and not for the gas that killed people.
I don’t follow what you call logic; what implication are you making?
And the ride’s name is Zyklon, not Cyclone. Yes, it means that in another language, but for most Americans (and most particularly Jews or others who experienced or know people who experienced the Holocaust) Zyklon evokes the gas used in the execution chambers at Auschwitz.
Wasn’t Zyclon-B at that time originally used as rat poison in those days from what I heard a while back?
As far as the poison ,yes it was. Another weird one is that there is also a Norweigan band called
“ZyKlon-B” which they claim does not have any references of any kind…hmmm?