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Title	:	I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1)
Author	:	Victor Klemperer
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 544 pages
Published	:	November 15th 1999 by Modern Library (first published 1995)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. World War II. Holocaust. War. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography

I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1) Paperback | Pages: 544 pages

Chronicle Supposing Books I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1)

The publication of Victor Klemperer's secret diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. "In its cool, lucid style and power of observation," said The New York Times, "it is the best  written, most evocative, most observant record of daily life in the Third Reich." I Will Bear Witness is a work of literature as well as a revelation of the day-by-day horror of the Nazi years.
                          
A Dresden Jew, a veteran of World War I, a man of letters and historian of great sophistication, Klemperer recognized the danger of Hitler as early as 1933. His diaries, written in secrecy, provide a vivid account of everyday life in Hitler's Germany.
                          
What makes this book so remarkable, aside from its literary distinction, is Klemperer's preoccupation with the thoughts and actions of ordinary Germans: Berger the greengrocer, who was given Klemperer's house ("anti-Hitlerist, but of course pleased at the good exchange"), the fishmonger, the baker, the much-visited dentist. All offer their thoughts and theories on the progress of the war: Will England hold out? Who listens to Goebbels? How much longer will it last?
                          
This symphony of voices is ordered by the brilliant, grumbling Klemperer, struggling to complete his work on eighteenth-century France while documenting the ever- tightening Nazi grip. He loses first his professorship and then his car, his phone, his house, even his typewriter, and is forced to move into a Jews' House (the last step before the camps), put his cat to death (Jews may not own pets), and suffer countless other indignities.
                          
Despite the danger his diaries would pose if discovered, Klemperer sees it as his duty to record events. "I continue to write," he notes in 1941 after a terrifying run-in with the police. "This is my heroics. I want to bear witness, precise witness, until the very end."   When a neighbor remarks that, in his isolation, Klemperer will not be able to cover the main events of the war, he writes: "It's not the big things that are important, but the everyday life of  tyranny, which may be forgotten. A thousand mosquito bites are worse than a blow on the head. I observe, I note, the mosquito bites."
                          
This book covers the years from 1933 to 1941. Volume Two, from 1941  to 1945, will be published in 1999.

Describe Books Concering I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1)

Original Title:	Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum Letzten
ISBN:	0375753788 (ISBN13: 9780375753787)
Edition Language:	English
Series:	I Will Bear Witness #1

Rating Based On Books I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1)

Ratings: 4.24 From 1925 Users | 110 Reviews

Judgment Based On Books I Will Bear Witness 1933-41 A Diary of the Nazi Years (I Will Bear Witness #1)

must wade thru mundane details for the nuggets-I may revisit this at some time. There is a vol.2 1941-1945 that may be more exciting.

In May 1935, Klemperer (1881-1960) was forced into early retirement from his position as professor of French literature at Dresden University. While he was born a Jew, he had converted to Christianity, married an Aryan woman and was very assimilated. Still he was labeled a Jew and with that all of his rights gradually stripped away. He and his wife had to move into a special "Jew house" and rented out their home to a tenant selected by the Nazis. His identity card was labeled with a J, he had

Reviews of this diary consistently fail to account for the richness of its contents. No one should "rate" a Holocaust memoir, but my decision to do so reflects my impression of my experience with Klemperer's words as a witness to a place, time, and life at times oddly similar and dissimilar to my own.Klemperer's diary is unique. As an academic, he knows he lives in troubled and interesting times. He leaves the "facts" of events in Nazi Germany to historians and focuses on documenting his lived



An astonishing document that's unlike anything else I know that might fit under the heading of Nazi period memoirs. The perspective it provides that of Jewish academic Victor Klemperer and his "Aryan" wife living in Dresden during a time of state-sponsored genocide beggars description. Moreover, it's very well written. Do read both volumes.

D wrote: "agreed, meaghan. i for sure don't feel klemperer ought to have shortened it. it just so happens that when i started reading it, i wasn't in

This was a great account of life under the Nazis. I found it both educational and riveting. I've re-read this book several times, each time picking up something new I hadn't remembered or noticed the last.