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When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), honored as a frontline veteran of World War I, was a distinguished professor at the University of Dresden. A scant few months later he was merely a Jew, protected from deportation to a death camp only by his marriage to an Aryan. He suffered every other indignity to which German Jews were subjected, from losing his job to having his driver's license revoked to being denied permission to own a pet, and all are recorded with bitter clarity in his diary entries, which cover the years 1933 to 1941. (A second volume continuing through 1945 will be published in English in 1999.) The German edition of this book caused a sensation when it was published in 1995, and it's easy to see why: the relentless, quotidian nature of Nazi racism comes through forcefully in Klemperer's litany of daily humiliations and insults, a painful chronicle of situations in which readers can readily imagine themselves. Like Anne Frank, but with a more adult understanding of political fanaticism and human weakness, he makes the abstract horror of genocidal persecution very intimate, very personal, and very real. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
The publication of Victor Klemperer's secret diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. "In its cool, lucid style and power of observation," said The New York Times, "it is the best written, most evocative, most observant record of daily life in the Third Reich." I Will Bear Witness is a work of literature as well as a revelation of the day-by-day horror of the Nazi years.
A Dresden Jew, a veteran of World War I, a man of letters and historian of great sophistication, Klemperer recognized the danger of Hitler as early as 1933. His diaries, written in secrecy, provide a vivid account of everyday life in Hitler's Germany.
What makes this book so remarkable, aside from its literary distinction, is Klemperer's preoccupation with the thoughts and actions of ordinary Germans: Berger the greengrocer, who was given Klemperer's house ("anti-Hitlerist, but of course pleased at the good exchange"), the fishmonger, the baker, the much-visited dentist. All offer their thoughts and theories on the progress of the war: Will England hold out? Who listens to Goebbels? How much longer will it last?
This symphony of voices is ordered by the brilliant, grumbling Klemperer, struggling to complete his work on eighteenth-century France while documenting the ever- tightening Nazi grip. He loses first his professorship and then his car, his phone, his house, even his typewriter, and is forced to move into a Jews' House (the last step before the camps), put his cat to death (Jews may not own pets), and suffer countless other indignities.
Despite the danger his diaries would pose if discovered, Klemperer sees it as his duty to record events. "I continue to write," he notes in 1941 after a terrifying run-in with the police. "This is my heroics. I want to bear witness, precise witness, until the very end." When a neighbor remarks that, in his isolation, Klemperer will not be able to cover the main events of the war, he writes: "It's not the big things that are important, but the everyday life of tyranny, which may be forgotten. A thousand mosquito bites are worse than a blow on the head. I observe, I note, the mosquito bites."
This book covers the years from 1933 to 1941. Volume Two, from 1941 to 1945, will be published in 1999.
Customer Reviews:
A must read memoir.......2007-07-08
This is a great memoir that any history buff or historian or anyone should read. It ranks right up there with Anne Frank's diary. It offers a unique view since Mr. Klemperer was married to a German woman during the Holocaust. It is this unique view on the Holocaust that makes this memoir so good.
Fascinating Account of pre-WWII life in Germany.......2007-02-01
Victor Klemperer's diary of pre war Germany provides fascinating insight into what life was like for ordinary citizens in Germany. Interspersed with the mundane aspects of life, e.g., shopping, driving, going to the dentist, etc. are ever increasing examples of the insanity that was Nazi Germany. It was a little difficult to get into, but it soon became a page tuner. The later years are particularly interesting. I couldn't put it down.
Excellent Source for insight on Nazi Germany.......2007-01-10
This Diary was an excellent read for many reasons. It was a good primary source for information on Nazi Germany and at the same time was compelling and extremely interesting. The keeper of this diary was also a great author which makes this diary very easy to read as if it were a memoir. His story is great and it was extremely fun to see historical events through his eyes. Through his diary the reader has the ability to get a feel of what everyday people thought of the Nazis and what their true feelings were toward the National Socialist party. If you do not know a lot about German/Nazi history I would reccomend a refresher course somehow. I read this diary while taking a class on the topic of Nazi Germany and it was extremely interesting for me.
Harrowing reading.......2006-10-28
Anybody who wants to know what it was like to be a Jew under the Nazi regime should read this book and the second volume of Klemperer's diaries.
First the bestiality and the stupidity of the Nazis are shown with a simplicity and an absence of hatred that make them more disgusting. Then the courage, the resilience and the determination of this humble Professor are a lesson of courage, modesty and survival for all. One of the books that left upon me the most lasting impression, hesitating between the joy of the "happy end" and the depression about what I read. These two books should be made compulsory reading in any serious history studies...And no serious historian should avoid to read those two books.
A powerful and uplifting account of life under the Nazis.......2006-10-10
I have read many books on the history of Europe and World War 2, but for the most part they cover the big picture - the major events and key participants. Victor Klemperer's diaries ("I Will Bear Witness") describe how people like himself were tossed about by the arbitrary power of the Nazis. This record of his personal experiences from 1933 to 1945 makes the history come vividly alive in all its horror and sadness.
Through the diaries we see the inexorable erosion of his rights (and the rights of all Jews) and the tyrannies of arbitrary power. Klemperer was forced to give up his car, he was forbidden to use the library, he could not have a phone, his typewriter was confiscated, and Jews had to hand in keys to their trunks.
Each day seemed to bring another "small" persecution, another wearing down of the spirit - except that Klemperer did not succumb, although he often despairs of surviving. He read almost every day and made notes on literary works he planned to write some day - if he survived. He bore witness by recording his actual experiences of tyranny.
Klemperer describes the exercise of raw power, cloaked in the trappings of Nazi law. Any official could do pretty much as he pleased with any Jew. It is almost impossible for those of us living in countries that respect the rule of law, and in which we can assert our rights, to truly feel the powerlessness, fear and humiliation that Klemperer felt almost every day under the Nazis. The Gestapo seem to select victims almost at random, but every persecution is handled with legal punctiliousness.
Reading the diaries today and knowing the history of Germany and the Jews, we are struck by the fact that Klemperer did not flee the country in good time like so many other Jews - and other members of his own family. But at the time, the future was unknown and there were always reasons for him to stay: Lack of money. He was almost 60 and would have felt reluctant, if not unable, to start a new life and earn money in another country. His wife was often sick and clung desperately to her new house. Our lives bind us to place. "Blut and Boden" (blood and soil) as the Nazis put it.
He was a reflective academic, unused until the war started to the rough and tumble of survival. Although the final entries in his diary after the bombing of Dresden show a remarkable feat of endurance in his and Eva's homeless wanderings to seek sanctuary.
The early part of the diary tells of his struggle to get a loan and to build a house. "Don't do it!" I cry silently. Don't you know a terrible war is coming and that the Jews will be rounded up? Don't you know you will be herded into a ghetto? Don't you know that Dresden will be fire-bombed (his new house is made of wood)?
But how could he know? We see the future as a continuation of the past. We cannot know for certain what events of today will have catastrophic consequences in the future. For Klemperer, things got slowly worse over time, each change bearable (if only just) - like boiling a frog. There was no sudden cataclysm that would have prompted even the most timid to flee - until too late.
Today we see small erosions of liberty, justified by the War on Terrorism: secret monitoring of the phone calls of "suspects" is OK, the Geneva Convention does not apply to Guantanamo Bay and "coercion" of prisoners is not torture. The end justifies the means, we are told - although not in such truthful terms. We think that none of these arbitrary exercises of power apply to us. But where will they lead? We do not know. But the experiences of Klemperer under the Nazis show where they have led in the past.
The diary is essentially as Klemperer wrote it - there has been no post facto editing to make it more literary or historically apt. The result is powerful and horrifying to the reader who is like some Olympian God watching Klemperer struggle, knowing the trials to come and the futility of his struggles.
His hopes, fears and vulnerabilities are laid before us, without any editing to remove the embarrassing entries - or other entries that lesser writers would have preferred not to see the light of day, such as his furtive theft of a spoonful of jam in the Jews House in Dresden. This honesty makes the diaries such a powerful and compelling statement.
But despite the ever-present threat of arrest and "evacuation" to Poland, from which no one ever returns and about which only the sketchiest rumours are known, Klemperer finds courage to enjoy the new flowers of spring, the beauty of fresh snow on tree branches, and the pleasures of visiting his friends and fellow victims.
One of the most poignant entries in the diary is for August 1, 1943. He had received an order to come to Gestapo HQ for "questioning". By that stage of the war, virtually no Jew returned from such questioning. Their families were notified that the person was deported and "shot while trying to escape". Some "committed suicide" in the cells before then. With the words "Perhaps this is my last entry", Klemperer records his feelings and his love for his wife Eva.
Every thinking person who is worried about the state of the world today should read this book. In the struggle against terrorism we see governments in liberal democracies encroaching on our liberties, condoning torture, telling lies - all in the name of a greater good, the War on Terror. This is no different in principle to the way Nazis, and all other totalitarian regimes, justified their actions and sought to hide the truth. The propaganda is exactly the same.
Of course the liberal democracies are unlikely to round up people suspected as enemies, put them in concentration camps and torture them - or are they?
We must never take our liberties for granted, nor accept that the end (in the war on terror) justifies the means. Klemperer's diaries are a powerful reminder of where that can lead.
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Turn to "Nonfiction Classics for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by the Gale Group--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: a summary of the work; analysis of key figures; author biography; an overview of the work's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; compare-and-contrast commentary; suggestions for further reading; and much more.
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Glittering Misery: Dependents of the Indian Fighting Army
Patricia Y. Stallard
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
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Book Description
Praise for Project Censored:
"Buy it, read it, act on it. Our future depends on the knowledge this collection of suppressed stories allows us."-San Diego Review
"Devastating evidence of the dumbing down of mainstream news in America. . . . . Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens."-Los Angeles Times
"A terrific resource."-Library Journal
"A distant early warning system for society's problems."-American Journalism Review
Project Censored highlights the year's 25 most important underreported news stories, alerting readers to deficiencies in corporate media. And this year, for the first time ever, Censored 2005 will add some original reporting of its own, breaking a major news story in its pages. Censored 2005 additionally features essays by Stephanie Dyer, Ph.D., (on cross-ownership of U.S. broadcast media), and Normon Soloman (on the state of media in the US).
Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, is an associate professor of sociology at Sonoma State University. He is known for his op-ed pieces in the alternative press and independent newspapers nationwide, including Z Magazine and Social Policy. He frequently speaks on censorship and various sociopolitical issues on radio and TV talk shows, including Talk of the Nation, Public Interest, World Radio Network, and Democracy Now!. He lives in rural Sonoma County, California.
Project Censored, founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, has as its principal objective the advocacy for and protection of First Amendment rights and the freedom of information in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
Superb.......2005-10-17
CENSORED 2005, like others of the series, reveal in sobering detail how much of the news we see is distorted, filtered and corrupted before it reaches us. If nothing else, readers will learn to be more cautious and less trusting in the news we are fed.
Extra, Extra...Read All About It.............2005-06-06
This is the first "Project Censored" book I have ever bought and it's jaw-dropping.
The once great esteemed American media/press has been degraded to jibber-jabber. Entertainment has become critical "news". There is hardly anymore investigative reporting, just many reporters offering opinions (aka "pundits"), and everything is just "spin", depending on what side of the political spectrum your views happen to land on.
This is the crux of "Project Censored 2005". This book offers the top 25 underreported stories of 2004, that would vastly improve an average American's understanding of the world if they were reported properly. Many of these stories are backed up by numerous references galore so anyone can follow up on these stories. The scariest parts of the book deal with corporate consolidation (monopoly) of media and Junk News/ News Abuse. When you read these sections, you will begin to wonder if America really has "free press".
Example: In June 5, 2005's edition of NYC's Daily News, the one year wedding anniversary of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony made page 2 headlines, while the murder of a 9 year old girl was pushed to page 4. Also,the devastating tsunami that struck south Asia was quickly pushed aside for the earth-shattering divorce of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. CNN, FOX and countless other major news channels covered this extensively. Instead of focusing on the genocide of Sudan, Paris Hilton's engagement ring made front page news. The War on Terror? Bah!!!! American Idol gets more coverage. Depleted Uranium used in the military getting much press? No way!!! Instead, the media would have you believe that Angelina Jolie's and Brad Pitt's getaway to Kenya is waaaaay more newsworthy (what's with all this Brad Pitt attention anyway? He's okay looking and all, but give us a break already!). Essence magazine was just purchased by Time Warner. When you read which corporations own which media (from books to music, to magazines to radio stations to TV and cable channels) you will be stunned at what few corporations own basically the majority of American press. Big Brother much?
Project Censored delves into these issues and insists that there needs to be huge overhaul of American media, for a society's press basically reflects the society...when a country's press becomes empty, ridiculous, frivolous, and all "spin" what does that say about the society? When entertainment becomes news worthy, American society is headed towards trouble.
Some people suggest this book is "liberal spin". But I ask anyone, from the few examples I gave above, do you really think this is spin or the cold-hard truth. Watch and read news magazines and papers and I dare you say otherwise.
A Unintended Parody .......2005-03-07
Hey, these are the people who claim 9/11 was some secret plot of Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, Exxon, blah, blah, blah
What's amusing is that as you read this book you can almost smell a whiff of Columbian Gold as these aging baby-boomers relieve the 60s by spinning dark conspiracies about how The Man is keeping them down.
This book is premised in another era...where you got your news from one monopoly newspaper and three tv networks. Back when there was REAL media consolidation. It's almost like the internet hasn't happened in their world.
One of the most telling stories they chose surrounds the 'Academic Bill Of Rights' which calls for intellectual diversity on college campuses....a direct challenge to the insular collegiate world from which the authors come. Sonnds like they are the ones who are afraid they'll lose their ability to censor what their students hear.
I use to take this stuff seriously when I was in college, but then I went out into the real world. This stuff reads like comedy.
They Do The Digging For You.......2005-02-25
As someone who is constantly reading periodicals, newspapers, and websites; searching for the REAL story of what's going on in the U.S. and the world, I have to say this book is absolutely wonderful.
Of course a few stories in this book you have probably already read somewhere, if you stay informed. But it is unlikely that you have heard/read about them all, and furthermore this book gives you links and info about each story so you can go into depth about each suppressed story.
Suppressed, that is, by the major media conglomerates who own damn near all the media out there; and soon will own even more thanks to deregulation.
A good buy, and a good read. Oh yeah, and it has an introduction by good ole Greg Palast, one of the finest investigative reporters alive today.
More Proof of Media Monopoly.......2005-01-17
I have followed the annual Project Censored guides for the better part of a decade, and can even credit the series with partially inspiring my recent master's degree in media studies. In that field, the overwhelming concern for the past several years has been the growing corporate consolidation of the media. Consequently, media outlets have a structural focus on news stories that reinforce the worldview of the corporate elite, and maintain the political and economic status quo, while simply ignoring stories that shed a bad light on such power structures. To a greater extent than ever, the "censored" stories located by the team this year predominantly feature corporate malfeasance and the consolidation of power by political and corporate elites, with unheralded harm being done to real people, along with a trampling of the common good and the public rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
Alas, since this is a group project, once again the Project Censored team has included their great findings in a disappointingly inconsistent book. Not to mention the frequent typos and other signs of poor technical editing, this book is often sunk by self-righteousness from the very same journalists who have courageously brought the under-reported stories to light. These original reporters, writing their own follow-ups and investigative reports here, usually complain about how the mainstream press and general public continue to ignore their work - complaints that are tiresome and unnecessary, because since we're reading this book we're already completely aware of the problem. One low point is "Lifestyles of the Rich and Oligopolistic" in which Stephanie Dyer ruins an expose on the boards of directors of media giants by complaining about how individual directors don't share her personal politics. Even worse is "U.S. Coverage of Israel and Palestine: Choosing Sides" in which extraordinarily holier-than-thou freelance reporter Alison Weir unloads blanket criticism of all media (including, strangely enough, Project Censored) for under-reporting the namesake conflict, but offers little real structural analysis of why such under-reporting happens or how the situation could be improved.
Fortunately, the remaining media analysis in this year's edition is generally strong and enlightening, although coverage of the media monopoly process is a bit repetitive and merely distills information that has already been well covered by experts in the field (especially my personal favorite, Robert McChesney). As usual, the stories uncovered by the Project Censored team are extremely important for those who want to know more about not only the behavior of the mainstream media, but the state of the world for the 99.9% of us who are not members of the elite. But you will have to put up with a certain amount of self-righteousness and poor writing and editing as the team can't quite create a book as strong as the stories it uncovers. [~doomsdayer520~]
Book Description
This digital document is an article from St. Louis Journalism Review, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2006. The length of the article is 3766 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Top 25 censored stories: more marginalized stories of 2005-2006.
Author: Charles L. Klotzer
Publication:
St. Louis Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 36
Issue: 292
Page: 23(5)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Before the novel and the film Deliverance appeared in the early 1970s, any outsiders one met along the Chattooga River were likely serious canoeists or anglers. In later years, untold numbers and kinds of people have felt the draw of the river's torrents, which pour down the Appalachians along the Georgia-South Carolina border. Because of Deliverance the Chattooga looms enigmatically in our shared imagination, as iconic as Twain's Mississippi—-or maybe Conrad's Congo.
This is John Lane's search for the real Chattooga—-for the truths that reside somewhere in the river's rapids, along its shores, or in its travelers' hearts. Lane balances the dark, indifferent mythical river of Deliverance against the Chattooga known to locals and to the outdoors enthusiasts who first mastered its treacherous vortices and hydraulics. Starting at its headwaters, Lane leads us down the river and through its complex history to its current status as a National Wild and Scenic River. Along the way he stops for talks with conservation activists, seventh-generation residents, locals who played parts in the movie, day visitors, and others. Lane weaves into each encounter an abundance of details drawn from his perceptive readings and viewings of Deliverance and his wide-ranging knowledge of the Chattooga watershed. At the end of his run, Lane leaves us still fully possessed by the Chattooga's mystery, yet better informed about its place in his world and ours.
Customer Reviews:
Chatooga, a flowing book.......2004-06-27
Chatooga is a flowing book - pun intended. John Lane
talks about the effect of the book Deliverance
and the movie on the people living around the Chatooga
in North Georgia. He talks to the people,
he hikes on the banks of the river and he kayaks the river.
This is a personal book, as much about Lane as
about the river. A good read!
Traveling the River with John Lane.......2004-05-13
Once again, John Lane has succeeded in writing a book that really connects with the regular fan of the wilderness with a desire to read. As a person that grew up in the area of the Chattooga, and have rafted the river myself, John's insights and stories were wonderfully written and a treat to have read. John Lane is the writer of my people.
John Lane...A Man's Man.......2004-05-08
John Lane has done it again... John never siezes to amaze me with his timeless writings. John Lane paints the most vivid pictures with his words. In all my years I have never read such brilliant literature. This book really hit home with me. All my life I've traveled on rivers, namely the Chattooga. The rhythmic beauty of its current is captured in John Lane's words. I am haunted by waters.
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I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years
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