{"product_id":"i-shall-bear-witness-the-diaries-1933-1941-the-diaries-of-victor-klemperer","title":"I Shall Bear Witness: The Diaries 1933-1941 (The Diaries of Victor Klemperer)","description":"\u003cp\u003eVictor Klemperer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe publication of Victor Klemperer's secret diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. I Will Bear Witness is a work of literature as well as a revelation of the day-by-day horror of the Nazi years.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e                          \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e                          \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat 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?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e                          \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e                          \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDespite 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.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eJanuary 1, 1999 by Phoenix\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"vendor-unknown","offers":[{"title":"Good \/ Paperback \/ Victor Klemperer","offer_id":51148099617066,"sku":"9780753806845","price":43.0,"currency_code":"ILS","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0734\/4039\/5562\/files\/1035775.jpg?v=1770915434","url":"https:\/\/evasusedbooks.co\/products\/i-shall-bear-witness-the-diaries-1933-1941-the-diaries-of-victor-klemperer","provider":"Eva's Used Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}