Victor Klemperer: Diarist of Nazi Germany

‘In the late afternoon we walked up to Dölzschen.’ This line – the last words in two volumes of diaries by Victor Klemperer spanning the years from 1933 to 1945 – may seem matterof- fact, prosaic, even dull. Yet in fact they are wonderfully inspiring and life-affirming. They signal that a remarkable and courageous man, and his equally remarkable and courageous wife, had somehow managed to survive a monstrous tyranny. To appreciate the power of Klemperer’s simple statement, however, you have first to read the preceding 1,200 pages of diaries – one of the most detailed, compelling and revealing human documents from the Nazi period.