Synopses & Reviews
Destined to take its place alongside
The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's
Night as one of the great classics of the Holocaust,
I Will Bear Witness is a timeless work of literature, the most eloquent and acute testament to have emerged from Hitler's Germany.
Volume Two begins in 1942, the year the Final Solution was formally proposed, and carries us through to the Allied bombing of Dresden and Germany's defeat.
Review
"The second volume of Klemperer's Holocaust diary is even more compelling than the first....Although the two volumes should be kept together, this book can certainly stand alone. An essential purchase." Library Journal
Review
"In its depiction of the great and small injustices and barbarities of living under the Nazis, Klemperer's diary is a timeless piece of literature." Publishers Weekly
Review
"More than any work of history or memory, Victor Klemperer's diary, I Will Bear Witness, compels the reader to relive the demise of Germany's Jews." Max Frankel, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Unparalleled...rare, illuminating, and priceless." The New York Times
Review
"This, the second and final volume of his epic, is probably the most fascinating. It is dense with detail, but deftly edited to be readable and is clearly the best choice for YAs." KLIATT
Synopsis
The second volume of the secret diaries of a Dresden resident begins in 1942, detailing how Hitler's Final Solution was formally proposed and taking readers through the Allied bombing of Dresden and Germany's defeat in 1945.
About the Author
A professor of Romance languages in Dresden, Victor Klemperer wrote several major works on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French literature before he was expelled from his post in 1935. He lived through the war in Dresden with his wife, Eva. Klemperer's secret diaries were thought for many years to have been lost or suppressed by the Communist authorities of East Germany, where Klemperer lived after the war. He wife deposited them after his death in 1960 in the Dresden Landesarchiv, where they remained until they were uncovered by Victor Nowojski, a former pupil, who edited and transcribed them for publication in Germany. Their reception there was a national event. The diaries have been translated into twelve languages.
Martin Chalmers has translated, from the German, books by Hubert Fichte, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Erich Fried. He is a frequent contributor to the New Statesman and The Independent, and lives in London.