I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years

This volume chronicles Victor Klemperer’s harrowing experiences as a Jew in Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945, during the height of the Holocaust. Living in Dresden, he endures forced labor, public humiliation, and the constant threat of deportation, narrowly surviving due to his marriage to an Aryan woman. As the Nazis begin targeting even Jews in mixed marriages, Klemperer’s fate seems sealed—until the massive Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945 provides a narrow chance for escape. He and his wife survive the destruction and eventually reach the Allied lines. The memoir’s final passages reveal the shocking postwar denial and amnesia of ordinary Germans who claim ignorance of Jewish persecution. Klemperer’s diary remains a powerful and detailed testimony of life under totalitarianism.