Fairys
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The memoirs of Victor Klemperer and Kazimierz Sakowicz expose a harsh truth of the HolocaustĂâthe Nazi claws of terror extended beyond the death camps and were dug firmly into the realities of daily life throughout Germany and Eastern Europe. Klemperers journal is renowned as a meticulous first-hand account of life as a German Jew under the NazisĂâhe gives a detailed, almost daily description of the deteriorating conditions of German Jewry during the war. Sakowicz, a Polish journalist living in present-day Lithuania, has left behind a fragmented, yet methodically outlined observation of the nearly daily killings of Jews and non-Jews in the village of Ponary. While both men leave behind illuminating evidence, these reports dont shed light on all fundamental aspects of the Holocaust. Klemperer exposes the plight of German Jewry while Sakowicz presents a seemingly unbiased account of the extermination of Wilno Jews and other âNazi enemies,â but neither is privy to the most familiar Holocaust atrocityĂâthe concentration camp. Although Nazi Germany encompassed a greater part of Europe by 1942, no single victim or onlooker experienced or witnessed every horror of Nazi terror, rendering the memoirs of Klemperer and Sakowicz enlightening yet incomplete.
In 1942, a full year after the âFinal Solutionâ had been implemented, Victor Klemperer was a resident of a Jews House in Dresden Germany with his wife. Nazi decrees reduced the Klemperers to near-starvation and deprived them membership in mainstream German culture and society. A converted Protestant man married to an âAryanâ woman, Klemperers identity prior to the Nazi regime was fundamentally GermanĂâwith the Gestapo, terror tactics, and the âsocial deathâ of German Jewry, the Nazis forced Klemperer, now a âMischlinge,â to obtain a Jewish identity. On January 12, 1942, Klemperer is hauled into the Gestapo headquarters simply for riding the number 16 tram. As he approaches the building with his âdogcatcher,â Klemperer notes, âĂThis is the Gestapo building, about which so many terrible stories are told.â Hes subjected to aggressive questioning regarding his motives for being on the tram and frequenting Chemnitzer Platz, and the Gestapo officers end the interrogation with threats. âAnd if we see you here again, youre going. You know where to.â Klemperer also anticipates the frequent âstreet abuseâ of âAryanâ Germans. After the incident at the Gestapo building, Klemperer adheres to the suggested guidelines and takes them one step further.
Since then I have taken only a very few steps in the open air, have not left this area and shall not leave it again. The business of their fabulous tyranny, brutality, mocking humiliation has taken hold of me far too much. Since then, I have no longer been able to get rid of thoughts of death.
What is unexpected by Klemperer are the more common instances of unexplainable kindness and human compassion from âgood Germans.â On May 8, 1942, Klemperer recorded an encounter with two elderly women on Wasaplatz. âThey stop, one comes toward me, holding out her handĂâŠShe only smiles and shakes my hand, says: ĂYou know why! and goes off before I can say a word.â Klemperer himself immediately contrasts such simple gestures of humanity, which are usually equally subtle and quiet, with the cruelty of Nazified âAryanâ citizens. âSuch demonstrations (dangerous for both parties!) are said to happen frequently. The opposite of the recent: ĂWhy are you still alive, you rough?! And both of these in Germany and in the middle of the twentieth century.â With the tragic fire-bombing of Dresden by the Allies, Klemperer experiences the equalization of war. âWe would have to try to find our people, I would have to remove my star, just as he [Eisenmann]. Eva thereupon ripped the star from my coat with a pocketknife.â As Victor and Eva attempt to find safety in Dresden, an ambulance comes along. âĂâŠAn ambulance man was dispensing eye-dropsĂâŠIt was very soon my turn. ĂNow, dad, Im not going to hurt you! He removed some dirt from the injured eyeĂâŠthen put stinging drops in both eyes.â Under conditions of attack, Klemperer can conceal his Jewish identity and he thus experienced catastrophe as a German and a citizen in Dresden, not simply as a Jew.
Although he suffers severe repression under the Nazis, Klemperers account as a German Jew does not encompass every crucial aspect of the Holocaust. âIn the last few days I heard Auschwitz (or something like it)ĂâŠmentioned as the most dreadful concentration campĂâŠBuchenwald, near Weimar, is