Victor Klemperer était un professeur de littérature spécialisé dans les Lumières françaises. Ses journaux intimes retracent sa vie sous les régimes allemands successifs, de l'Empire à travers la République de Weimar jusqu'à l'Allemagne nazie et la RDA. Ses souvenirs du Troisième Reich sont devenus des sources fondamentales pour les historiens étudiant cette époque. Le travail de Klemperer offre une perspective unique sur la survie et la mentalité en des temps troublés.
Publié en 1947, à partir des notes et observations linguistiques rédigées pendant la période nazie par ce philologue allemand de confession juive déchu de son poste à l'université, la "Lingua Tertii Imperii" a fortement marqué la réflexion sur le langage totalitaire.
" Obligation de rester chez soi après huit ou neuf heures du soir. Contrôle ! Chassés de notre propre maison. Interdiction d'écouter la radio, interdiction d'utiliser le téléphone. Interdiction d'aller au théâtre, au cinéma, au concert, au musée. Interdiction de s'abonner à des journaux ou d'en acheter. Interdiction d'utiliser tout moyen de transport [...] Interdiction d'acheter des fleurs. Interdiction d'aller chez le coiffeur. [...] Obligation de remettre aux autorités les machines à écrire, les fourrures et les couvertures en laine, les bicyclettes [...], les chaises longues, les chiens, les chats, les oiseaux. [...] Interdiction d'emprunter la pelouse municipale et les rues adjacentes du Grosser Garten, interdiction... [...] Voilà, le crois que c'est tout. Mais, pris tous ensemble, ces 31 points ne sont rien face au danger permanent de perquisition, de sévices, de prison, de camp de concentration et de mort violente. " V-K.
The second volume of the diaries of Victor Klemperer, a Jew in Dresden who survived the war and whose diaries between 1933 and 1945 have been hailed as one of the most important chronicles of Nazi Germany ever published. schovat popis
A publishing sensation, the publication of Victor Klemperer's diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period. 'A classic ... Klemperer's diary deserves to rank alongside that of Anne Frank's' SUNDAY TIMES 'I can't remember when I read a more engrossing book' Antonia Fraser 'Not dissimilar in its cumulative power to Primo Levi's, is a devastating account of man's inhumanity to man' LITERARY REVIEW The son of a rabbi, Klemperer was by 1933 a professor of languages at Dresden. Over the next decade he, like other German Jews, lost his job, his house and many of his friends. Klemperer remained loyal to his country, determined not to emigrate, and convinced that each successive Nazi act against the Jews must be the last. Saved for much of the war from the Holocaust by his marriage to a gentile, he was able to escape in the aftermath of the Allied bombing of Dresden and survived the remaining months of the war in hiding. Throughout, Klemperer kept a diary. Shocking and moving by turns, it is a remarkable and important account.
A publishing sensation in German, the publication of Victor Klemperer's diaries brings to light one of the most extraordinary documents of the Nazi period.
A labourer, journalist and a professor who lived through four successive periods of German political history – from the German Empire, through the Weimar Republic and the Nazi state through to the German Democratic Republic – Victor Klemperer is regarded as one of the most vivid witnesses to a tumultuous century of European history. First published in 1957, The Language of the Third Reich arose from Klemperer's conviction that the language of the Third Reich helped to create its culture. As Klemperer writes: 'It isn't only Nazi actions that have to vanish, but also the Nazi cast of mind, the typical Nazi way of thinking, and its breeding ground: the language of Nazism.'
These diaries of a Jew in Nazi Germany form the most important document to emerge from that period since the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank.
Munich 1919 is a vivid portrayal of the chaos that followed World War I and the collapse of the Munich Council Republic by one of the most perceptive chroniclers of German history. Victor Klemperer provides a moving and thrilling account of what turned out to be a decisive turning point in the fate of a nation, for the revolution of 1918-9 not only produced the first German democracy, it also heralded the horrors to come. With the directness of an educated and independent young man, Klemperer turned his hand to political journalism, writing astute, clever and linguistically brilliant reports in the beleaguered Munich of 1919. He sketched intimate portraits of the people of the hour, including Erich Mühsam, Max Levien and Kurt Eisner, and took the measure of the events around him with a keen eye. These observations are made ever more poignant by the inclusion of passages from his later memoirs. In the midst of increasing persecution under the Nazis he reflected on the fateful year 1919, the growing threat of antisemitism, and the acquaintances he made in the period, some of whom would later abandon him, while others remained loyal. Klemperer's account once again reveals him to be a fearless and deeply humane recorder of German history. Munich 1919 will be essential reading for all those interested in 20th century history, constituting a unique witness to events of the period.
'The third and final volume of the diaries of Victor Klemperer, a Jew in Dresden who survived the war and whose 1933-1945 diaries have already been hailed as one of the twentieth century's most important chronicles. In June 1945 Victor and Eva Klemperer return to their home in the Dresden suburbs, a place last seen in 1940 when they were forced to leave it and live in a Jews' House. Feelings of fairy-tale euphoria alternate with much darker moods. The immediate postwar period produces shocks and revelations: some people have behaved better than Klemperer had believed, others much worse......' (Back of book)