Victor Klemperer's Diaries Essay

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Victor Klemperer’s diaries are similar to the other records of what was experienced by German Jews during the same time in many ways, except the fact that he survived. Klemperer’s diaries give us a true sense of what happened, and this is what makes the diaries so special and unforgettable. His observations of own progressive deterioration of his humanity as he lost his rights and freedoms and his record of all the destruction happening around him, especially his awareness of what all was truly happening to the German Jews just like him. Victor began keeping a diary at the age of 16 and wrote until his death. During the years under the Nazi regime, Klemperer suffered explicit perils, pure terror, and absolute degradation, but he was persistent and…show more content…
He felt it was his obligation to write, to create a detailed account of events for those after him to witness. Even though these misfortunes affected Victor directly, he used a point of view that reflected that of someone observing from a distance. Klemperer’s self-identity of being a German and his true identity of being a Jew could be the reason behind his style of writing, as he switched back and forth between his personal views on the things going around him back to the view of someone from the outside. In my opinion, Klemperer used his diaries as a certain gateway to funnel all the catastrophes he was experiencing, and in turn he survived. Without being able to write down these accounts of what was happening around him, I feel that Victor wouldn’t have been able to deal with the conditions the Nazi regime placed on him. The second survival strategy used by Klemperer and his wife was in fact, his wife, as she was a “non-Jewish” German and basically was the key to Victor’s survival. Since he was married to a non- Jewish woman, he was spared deportation to Auschwitz, Riga, or to Theresienstadt as his fellow Jewish Germans had

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