Indeed, in a literary century rife with reappraisals, few 20th-century writers rode a wilder wave to prominence than did Klemperer. Born to Jewish parents on October 9, 1881 in Landsberg an der Warthe—then part of Prussia, now Gorzów, Poland—he married a Lutheran in 1906 and converted to Protestantism in 1912. These events combined to protect him throughout World War II—barely. During the conflict, Klemperer frequently and narrowly avoided deportation, a miraculous turn that culminated with his survival of the infamous Dresden bombings of February 1945. The database promises to generate a wealth of new insights concerning this already classic historical reference work. been an alliance of "grand capitalists" and "grand militarists" working together to suppress the "working class." From Klemperer's diaries, Nazism emerges as a movement of dour, petit-bourgeois Archie the award ceremony. This could not have been accidental. He devoted nearly his entire speech to the proposition that the memory of Auschwitz must not be allowed to destroy the possibility of renewed Jewish assimilation within German nationhood chanting slogans. They were protesting the recent daubing, presumably by skinheads or neo-Nazis, of tombstones in an old Jewish cemetery. On their heavy overcoats and parkas many displayed yellow cardboard Judensterns, a gesture that attracted

continue to write. This is my heroics. I want to bear witness, precise witness, until the very end." He was a former professor of Romance languages at the Technical University of Dresden and had escaped deportation to the death camps entjuden ("to de-Jew"). Conversely, after the war, a strong trend of Entnazifizierung (" denazification") took place.

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apartment. They must kill their cat, for Jews are not allowed to keep pets. Klemperer cannot buy flowers, books, tobacco, newspapers or shaving cream ("Jews are supposed to grow beards"). He is pressed into forced labor; he shovels In 1995, Victor Klemperer was posthumously awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis for his work, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten. Tagebücher 1933–1945. It must have been obvious long before 20 July [1944, the date of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg’s attempt on Hitler’s life] that there was nothing left to moderate—and after 20 July the madness continued for nearly a whole year. No, if I look at these things objectively, I cannot find anybody free of guilt.

Related Links• The Jew Who Fought to Stay German: A New York Times Magazine article by Amos Elon (March 24, 1996) On March 10, 1933, Victor Klemperer summed up the traumatic events of the past few weeks in the diary he had been keeping faithfully for years: ''January 30. Hitler Chancellor. What, up to election Sunday on March 5, I called terror, was a mildDespite his conversion to Protestantism in 1912 and his strong identification with German culture, Klemperer's life started to worsen considerably after the Nazis' seizure of power in 1933. Under the 1933 Nazi "First Racial Definition", a person was defined as a Mischling if they had one Jewish parent or grandparent, regardless of religious belief. May 23, 1938– The aim of education in the Third Reich and of the language of the Third Reich, is to expand the popular stratum in everyone to such an extent that the thinking stratum is suffocated. The early diaries from the Weimar Republic offer an insight into Klemperer’s life and career as a professor of Romance languages at the Technische Universität Dresden (TUD). As the Nazis rose to power, he adopted the role of a “cultural historian of the catastrophe,” documenting the ongoing withdrawal of rights from Jews. These observations are accompanied by a minute account of his day-to-day life under National Socialism. His post-1945 diaries testify to a desire for a radical new beginning – both for himself and for Germany. Though less well known than his other diaries and until now never published in full, these provide significant insights into the divided post-war Germany and early East Germany, as well as Klemperer’s engagement with Communism and Zionism. which might be forgotten. A thousand gnat bites are worse than a blow on the head. I observe, I note the gnat bites."

only the people. Why have millions of my opponents remained in the country? The émigrés are ‘scoundrels’ like the [Strasser] brothers. And a couple of hundred thousand rootless internationalists—interruption: “Jews”!—want to set nations of millions at one another’s throats . . . I only want peace, I have risen from the common people. I want nothing for myself. July 1, Saturday. Language Note: Goebbels in the Political Academy on June 30 (formal lecture therefore) on Fascism (approvingly therefore): “The Fascist Party in Italy has brought into being a huge organization of many millions which includes everything, popular theater, popular games, sport, tourism, hiking, singing, and is supported by the state with every resource.”for the language of the Third Reich) and filled with examples of Nazi words and their analysis. For its cool, lucid style and power of observation, Klemperer's diary has been hailed as a document of rare authenticity -- the best-written, Welt- ("world", as in Weltanschauung, "intuition/view of the world"): this was quite a rare, specific and cultured term before the Third Reich, but became an everyday word. It came to designate the instinctive understanding of complex geo-political problems by the Nazis, which allowed them to openly begin invasions, twist facts or violate human rights, in the name of a higher ideal and in accordance to their theory of the world. blow this horn." He corrected her vehemently. "We didn't have to." In really free elections he has voted for the right cause. This I can't forgive him. The poor dog may be frightened for his job. He must howl with