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.
#2016307 in Books Harvard University Press 1999-03-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 1.18 x 6.42 x 9.53l; 1.55 #File Name: 0674930703400 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. How Religion and Culture Played a Significant Role in the White Flight from BostonBy Alan GreggAn interesting comparison as to how the heirarchy of the Catholic Church versus the much less structured Jewish religious and cultural community; which affected the demographics and subsequent white flight in the Roxbury and Dorchester sections of Boston. Due to the inability of the movement of Catholic parishes versus the unhindered mobility of Jewish organizations; the books shows how redlining and blockbusting made it easier for the Jewish community to abandon the changing demographics of the city for the new suburbs; whereas the Catholic community was tied more to the community by virtue of the fact that the parish and parochial school would stay in the community and that if a Catholic chose to relocate from the city to the suburbs; how they would have to join a new parish and thus religious community; albeit of their co-religionists.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Shame on BostonBy Arthur BloomThe reasons behind the exodus of Jews from Dorchester and Roxbury where my friends and I grew up is a bit of a shameful story; shameful for the real estate people and the bankers who saw to it for their own economic advantage. The screwing of the Blacks who would move in is awful to read about; systematic as it was. A story well told; not widely enough known; but well documented and clear. As history and as a lesson in civics this is very worth reading.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. ... a revisionist history of demographic change in Boston neighborhoods like Roxbury; DorchesterBy J. ZornGamm does well to articulate a revisionist history of demographic change in Boston neighborhoods like Roxbury; Dorchester; and Mattapan. The accepted view is that of Harmon and Levine in The Death of an American Jewish Community: redlining and block-busting were the main causes. Greedy banking and real estate interests kept Jews; then blacks restricted to those certain districts and pressured the Jews to flee; opening super-profits for themselves in captive markets. Gamm argues for the untenability of this hypothesis; letting the bankers an realtors too far off the hook; in my judgment. He's very good on the respective commitments of temples and parish churches in their immediate neighborhoods. I wish he had said more about the stances toward upward mobility among Irish and Jewish citizens of Boston; and indeed among blacks as well.
