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Tag Archives: Victor Klemperer
2022 Books Read
Some re-reads this year, but a lot of new-to-me authors as well. New novels written by faves. Been a year of upheaval and transitions. I’ve managed to keep up my regular reading schedule. I just don’t feel right if I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged A.S. Byatt, Alfred Hitchcock, Anne Fadiman, art, Australia, Biography, books read, Canada, Christopher Hitchens, Edmund Burke, Elinor Lipman, England, entertainment biography, essays, Eve Babitz, friends, Germany, Greece, Hitler, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Janet Malcolm, Joan Didion, Joseph Cornell, Lorrie Moore, Machiavelli, Master and Margarita, Memoirs, Michael Curtiz, Mikhail Bulgakov, Mitford sisters, nonfiction, Paul Zindel, politics, Quentin Tarantino, Robert De Niro, Russia, Ryszard Kapuściński, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Beatles, Tom Wolfe, true crime, Victor Klemperer, Victor Serge, war, William Hazlitt, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, WWII, YA fiction
10 Comments
On This Day: September 1, 1939
From Newsweek: Scenes from the invasion of Poland From MSN: Friends, foes, mark WWII’s start in Poland Hitler’s speech on Sept. 1, 1939, from Berlin: To the defense forces: The Polish nation refused my efforts for a peaceful regulation of … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day
Tagged Germany, Hitler, Poland, Victor Klemperer, W.H. Auden, war, William Shirer, WWII
12 Comments
For Holocaust Remembrance Day: Bear Witness
On May 27, 1942, a desperate and isolated Victor Klemperer, feeling the vice of Nazi terror closing in around him, helpless to stop it, declared in his journal: “I shall go on writing. That is my heroism. I will bear … Continue reading
Today in history: November 7, 1917
Yesterday’s post was a bit prescient, considering that today is the anniversary of one of the most seismic events of the 20th century: The Russian Revolution (or, at least, that first successful power-grab.) Look at that rogue’s gallery. I love … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day
Tagged Edvard Radzinsky, George Orwell, Grey Gardens, Lenin, politics, Russia, Stalin, Trotsky, Victor Klemperer, war
9 Comments
The Books: I Will Bear Witness: 1942-1945, by Victor Klemperer
Daily Book Excerpt: Memoirs: Next book on the Memoir/Letters/Journals shelf is I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years, by Victor Klemperer Volume II of Victor Klemperer’s extraordinary journal (volume I here). The screws tighten inexorably, and … Continue reading
The Books: I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941, by Victor Klemperer
Daily Book Excerpt: Memoirs: Next book on the Memoir/Letters/Journals shelf is I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, 1933-1941, by Victor Klemperer The journals (there are three volumes in all) are written by a Jewish man, an … Continue reading
Today In History: November 7, 1917
One of the most seismic events of the 20th century: The Russian Revolution. Look at that gathering of rogues. I love the grainy old photographs of all of them – they always look so twinkly and jolly, don’t they? It’s … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day
Tagged Edvard Radzinsky, George Orwell, Lenin, Russia, Stalin, Trotsky, Victor Klemperer, war
4 Comments
Light Reading
I’m tearing my way through Viktor Klemperer’s Language of the Third Reich: LTI: Lingua Tertii Imperii. Can’t put it down. I’ve been waiting to read this a long long time. When I stayed with Carrie in Belfast – (“Take a … Continue reading
Victor Klemperer: “I Will Bear Witness”
If you have not read the two volumes of Victor Klemperer’s journals entitled I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years, then I highly recommend you do so. The journals are written by a Jewish man, an intellectual, … Continue reading

