Modern World History Spring 2002
Study Questions on Victor Klemperer, I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941, translated by Martin Chalmers (New York: The Modern Library, 1999).
Victor Klemperer was a Jew who lived in the German city of Dresden. He worked as a professor of French literature at the local university. Klemperer was from a family of successful scholars, artists, and businessmen. Like most German Jews, they were very assimilated into German society. Klemperer had been a war hero in the German Army during World War One, and he was married to a Christian.
That Klemperer was a loyal, assimilated German Jew meant nothing to the Nazi Party, which held power in Germany from 1933 to 1945: to the Nazis, Jews were "racial enemies" of the German people.
But Klemperer was relatively "fortunate" during Nazi rule, because being married to a German Christian woman gave him a certain amount of protection from the very worst punishments of Nazi anti-Jewish policies--at least for a while.
This book is Klemperer's diary for the years 1933-1941. That means that the diary covers the period from just before the Nazis took power (in 1933) through the first two years of World War Two (which began in Europe in 1939).
Because this is a diary, what we are reading are Klemperer's day-to-day thoughts. He was not writing for an audience (the way Fukuzawa was in his Autobiography); instead, Klemperer was using the diary to talk to himself, to help him think. Much of the time he is concerned with simple problems, like how to pay the rent. He also writes often about problems that he is having in his work at the university or in his research. And he writes often about tensions with his wife.
But Klemperer also kept a very close watch on political developments in Germany, and his diary gives us a very detailed account of what it was like to live under Nazi rule (in particular, what it was like for a Jew to live under the Nazis).
There are many references in this book to people, places, and events that you might not recognize. It will help you to read the Preface on pages vii-xxii. Fortunately, the book has excellent NOTES, beginning on page 457. These notes give you extra background information on people, places, and events mentioned in the diary.
The notes are organized by year and day of the diary entry. For instance, on page 90 in the diary (the entry for 30 March 1933), Klemperer mentions "the National Socialist boycott." If you look on page 460, there is a note that explains that in April 1933 the Nazis tried to get people to stop buying goods from Jewish stores (etc).
As you read the diary, be sure to take notes that will help you answer the following questions. One of these questions will be on Exam Three:
What evidence do you find in the diary about the attitudes of non-Jews towards the Nazi regime, and how did these attitudes change in 1933-1941?
What evidence do you find in the diary about the evolution of Nazi policy towards Jews in 1933-1941. When and in what ways did Nazi persecution of Jews intensify, and what examples from the lives of Klemperer and his friends and family demonstrate this?
What evidence do you find in the diary about the effects of Nazi rule on people's every day lives (their work, their housing, their diet, etc.)? When and in what ways did conditions deteriorate? In particular, use Klemperer's own life for examples.
What evidence do you find in the diary about how Nazi rule changed relationships between Jews and non-Jews in Germany? How did these relationships change over time in 1933-1945?
Some historians argue that the Nazis were able to stay in power because 1) they ruled by terror (that people were afraid to act against the Nazis); 2) they "brainwashed" people so that people would agree with Nazi policies; 3) the apathy of the German people meant that they simply did not make an effort to resist Hitler; 4) the genuine popularity of the Nazis and their programs among large numbers of Germans; 5) a combination of all these reasons. Using evidence from this diary, which theory would you agree with and why?