Rating: 
Summary: evocative, moving, unforgetable
Review: This is a book of rare beauty for it teaches us so much about human nature. It is one of the most moving immediate accounts of the persecution of the Jews I have ever read. It clearly illustrates the insidiousness of the persecution. Even though I am fully aware of the fact that he and his wife survive the war, I am still drawn into the tension of his nightmarish reality of his unknown fate. The suicides that go on around him. Elderly people choosing suicide instead of going off to the death camps. The old women from old folk homes sitting passively on their suitcases waiting for deportation and camp. The impossibleness of their situation. People frantically trying to leave Germany. Relatives around the world frantically trying to help them. The unfortunate Jews who did manage to escape into the European milieu only to be recaptured and sent to death camps. The horror. The unmitigated horror of it all. When I read Night by Elie Wiesel, I was profoundly moved by the human suffering. The difference with this journal is that I become present. Before, only Dostoevski has ever managed to fully capture me into his reality but Klemperer's diary made me consciously feel the terror and the horror kaleidoscope into one surreal reality. The author gets his wish, for he will be immortalized as a writer of substance. The hands of fate is erie. It is as if, he has to stay there in Dresden - to bear witness- so that in turn, we can see how it all happened. His intellectualizing - knowing full well that a "blood thirsty" moronic regime like Hitler's can not possibly survive, yet the continous question poised is will he survive the regime?
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling, eye-witness account of life in Nazi Germany.
Review: This is a must-read book for anyone interested in understanding the story behind the story of Nazi Germany in the 30s and early 40s. Victor Klemperer's detailed journal entries provide insights so real that one can almost palpably experience the tension and tribulations of the time. You will likely have a greater appreciation for the society in which you live after reading this insightful treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory for those interested in German/Jewish history.
Review: This is the most compelling book I have ever read on the subject of the destruction of the German Jewish community. Compelling because the author wrote for himself, with candor and without artifice, about his daily experiences, hopes and fears. I recommend strongly that you buy this book. If you do, you will find yourself, as I did, caught up in the daily life of a German professor who cast aside his Jewish heritage in favor of German culture, only to find, in the end, that his treasured homeland still considered him a Jew by race. I only regret, at the time of my writing this, that the second volume is not yet available. Of all the books I have read on the Holocaust, this one will live forever in my mind, because reading his diary was like living his experience.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary work
Review: This is without doubt one of the finest works to come out of the NS years in Germany. It provides, in particular, great insight into the conduct of the German people toward the Jews, both good and bad. Klemperer's description of his flight from Dresden posing as an Aryan following the bombing is fascinating, both for its capturing the horrors of war for civilians and for description of the suffering of the German people at the end of the war, a perspective often lost in the history of the period. One of the best things I have ever read -- highly recommended even if one is not a student of the Holocaust and the Nazi era. A truly amazing tale of what human beings can endure when they are forced to.
Rating:
Summary: The human impact of Nazi anti-Jewish policies
Review: This poignant book is quite unique. Written as a diary, and not intended to be published, Klemperer's book is like no other I have read in conveying the impact upon one couple of the Nazi's repressive regime. Virtually day after day, Klemperer recounts how he and his wife (who was not Jewish) bear the brunt of an endless array of irritating and debilitating Nazi policies. For example, he loses his teaching position; he is divested of his car; his house is "rented" to an Aryan; the couple is forced to move into and share a home with other Jewish individuals; his bank accounts are frozen; the couple's food and clothing rations are cut; and on and on in and endless procession of indignities. The human dimension of these repressive Nazi practices emerges with such startling force one simply is amazed that the couple surived at all. A moving and valuable addition to the literature of the period.
Rating:
Summary: The human impact of Nazi anti-Jewish policies
Review: This poignant book is quite unique. Written as a diary, and not intended to be published, Klemperer's book is like no other I have read in conveying the impact upon one couple of the Nazi's repressive regime. Virtually day after day, Klemperer recounts how he and his wife (who was not Jewish) bear the brunt of an endless array of irritating and debilitating Nazi policies. For example, he loses his teaching position; he is divested of his car; his house is "rented" to an Aryan; the couple is forced to move into and share a home with other Jewish individuals; his bank accounts are frozen; the couple's food and clothing rations are cut; and on and on in and endless procession of indignities. The human dimension of these repressive Nazi practices emerges with such startling force one simply is amazed that the couple surived at all. A moving and valuable addition to the literature of the period.
Rating:
Summary: Left Hanging At The End
Review: This was an excellent book and chock full of interesting information. It is a first person account written as the events were unfolding. It's too bad that it stops at the end of 1941, as I would like to know what happened next and I am waiting for the next volume. Klemperer's knowledge of the literature of the French Revolution and the comparisons he frequently draws between France of the French Revolution and Germany of the Nazi Era made me want to do some studies of that time period as well. The cycles of history?
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but very tedious reading.
Review: Very interesting to learn how Jews who were left in Germany were treated. It is difficult to understand the inhumanity enforced on people. Book was hard to read but worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: everyday life for a German Jew
Review: Victor Klemperer was a German intellectual who also happened to be a Jew. He did not give much attention to this fact until it was forced upon him when Hitler came into power. His diaries describe the slow but sure downgrading of his life: first he is not allowed to continue his work at the university, then he cannot buy certain goods anymore such as tobacco, then he is not allowed to keep pets and so it goes on and on... And every time he and his German wife (the reason he is not transported) adapt and try to count their fewer and fewer remaining blessings. The book is very impressive, especially because it shows what an impact relatively small decisions made by the Nazi government (not being allowed to keep pets is small compared to the Endlosung) had on everyday life and how much energy the Nazi's spent on making life as unbearable as possible for the few remaining Jews. Also impressive and heart-warming are the reactions from the "common man": even though people were terrified of the government they greeted Klemperer and gave him cigarettes. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in the effects that governments can have on the life of their citizens.
Rating:
Summary: Victor Klemperer does not contradict Goldhaugen's book.
Review: Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness" contains a few instances of some ordinary Germans' sympathy toward the Jewish plight, but it certainly doesn't contradict Goldhaugen's "Ordinary Men". Goldhaugen's point was that many of the killers of Jews in Poland and Russia were recruited from German police departments. But there were as many instances of ordinary German policemen asking to be relieved of this duty as there were instances of ordinary Germans showing kindness or sympathy toward Jews. The fact is, the vast majority of ordinary Germans went along with the Jewish persecutions and approved of them, not out of fear, but out of prejudice. By contrast, in Denmark, when the Nazis ordered all Jews to wear the gold Star of David in public, thousands of ordinary Danes bravely wore gold stars to demonstrate sympathy to Jews and defiance to the Nazi occupiers. There is no recorded instance of this ever happening in Germany.
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