The review of the book by Klemperer is a diary that looks at the events that took place during the Hitler’s era. It provides the readers with an overview of the process and pain that was experienced by Jews at the hands of the German leadership plus the hope that victims of mistreatment and torture had about a better future. The mystery tours that he takes with his wife, Eva to escape the suffering in Germany further gives the reader an understanding of the humanitarian challenges that the polish Jews had to face.
Discussion
The book by Victor focuses on his life as an endangered Jew living in the German Nazi era that was demarcated by holocausts and inhuman treatments. He analyses the fear that he and Eva had to endure as Jews during the Hitler’s regime. The diary provides the readers with a record thought of an individual living under political upheaval in a foreign country where systematic oppressions were the order of the day. Illegal political goings fueled by Hitler’s goons in the 3rd Reich is highlighted in the diary. Those persons that never voted him were hunted down and either executed or tortured. Despite the political turmoil and oppression that was driven by Hitler, Klemperer sill had a strong attachment to the country, and unlike those individuals that went to exile, he remained put.
The conditions that Klemperer must undergo while living in Germany were devastating especially with the intensification of wars, inhuman treatment under the Hitler regime and the spewing of the Nazi anti-Semitism across the country. In the autumn of 1941, all the German Jews were supposed to wear a “yellow star” that was used to identify them among the native population. All the Jewish emigration was halted, and any one that tried to escape from the country was executed in public. They could not carry out activities such as running businesses and engage in their civic rights. Most of the Jews wallowed in poverty and were affected by various types of diseases, with the government not coming to their aid. Klemperer, in his book, states that he was among those Jews that were trapped in the torturous regime awaiting Hitler’s implementation of the execution law that would have ended up leading to the death of several non-Germans. The spread of the Nazi anti-Semitism brought along with it intimidations and fear on those persons that were not natives or were a part of the opposition.
The Hitler regime ensured that it denied its citizens access to information and this forced Klemperer to primarily rely on second-hand reports, rumors or foreign news to have an understanding of the details of oppressive developments that were taking place across the country. Some of them included the construction of the Nazi death camp that was completed on 8th December that year and the development of projects at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Belzec among other sites that were to be used as murder spots for millions of Jews that lived in Germany. Klemperer argues that Hitler’s government funded and supervised the construction of death centers in Germany. He further states that it took him a lot of time to realize more inhuman acts was yet to be embraced by the regime. International bodies strongly criticized the inhuman activities that were being conducted by Hitler, but that hardly stopped him from developing more torture and execution centers.
The Holocaust served as the climax to a regime that was marred by humanitarian crisis and based on Klemperer’s findings more than 2.7 million Jews lost their lives in 1942. The reason for his survival during the massacre was solely attributed to the fact that he was married to an Aryan lady and this gave him fragile privileges. However, this form of marriages became a subject of discussion in the Berlin suburb meeting in 1942, and the year was termed as the most lethal in the Jewish history. The main agenda of this conference, led by Reinhard Heydrich was to dissolve the mixed marriage setup with the aim of exposing the Jewish groups, thus making them easy targets for the massacres. However, the proposal was never implemented because the dominance of the Nazi anti-Semitism was overwhelming and the government mainly focused on strengthening its powers by weakening the oppositions.
In his book, Klemperer states that while the Wannsee conference was ongoing, he spent most the time at Paul Kreidl residents. Paul was a Jewish that had met Klemperer several years back, and in this era when the Jews were Hitler’s main target, he offered his friend a safe place to live. It is from his friend that Klemperer learned about the death of those Jews that had been sent from Germany to Latvia. Kreidl was among those Jews that had been deported to Riga, only to survive after a power struggle ensued between the Nazis that sided with the postponement of the Jews' death. Additionally, Klemperer got an opportunity to learn more about the push by Hitler to have all the foreigners expelled out of Germany and those opposed to him imprisoned or publicly executed.
He writes about the regular financial difficulties that he faced while living in the country that was ant-Jews. The challenges were often relieved by the gifts that he received from his elder brother, George, a surgeon that had fled to the U.S. in 1935. After the accession of Hitler, Klemperer was swindled some money by Sandel, and he felt that reporting the matter to the police would have saved his some distrust from the authority on his support to the Jewish community. He later likens communism to Nazism, and this comes to happen especially after he ends up becoming a member of the Communist Party that mainly took charge of East Germany.