The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-1959

Review Klemperer's diary deserves to rank alongside that of Anne Frank ― SUNDAY TIMESThese diaries constitute one of the most vital historical and human documents of their age. Packed with vivid observation, profound reflection ... they find hope, dignity and even tart humour in the jaws of hell ― INDEPENDENTOne of the greatest diarists - perhaps the greatest - in the German language ― NEW YORK TIMESCompulsive reading ... Klemperer's diary also offers a superb window on life in Soviet-occupied Germany in 1945-9 and the early years of the German Democratic Republic ― LITERARY REVIEWKlemperer's acute eye for the corruption of his contemporaries and his sharp ear for the corruption of language make these diaries an inexhaustible mine of information and insight for anybody interested in the German catastrophe ... In the hands of a master, the ephemeral is perennial ― DAILY TELEGRAPHThe diary juxtaposes the profound and the mundane, rather like life itself. That is what makes it such a vivid and powerful account of a remarkable life ― SCOTLAND ON SUNDAYDeeply engrossing ... he has the supreme gifts of honesty and scepticism ... He doesn't exaggerate, he doesn't fantasize ... one of the supreme chroniclers of the 20th century ― SPECTATORNo other testimony remotely as truthful exists of the locked-in half of Germany. The voice of Victor Klemperer is simply indispensable ― EVENING STANDARDPuts tears and blood into a political era that is otherwise difficult to dramatise and so to imagine ― SCOTSMANThe enhance Victor Klemperer's rare standing as a truth-teller ― IRISH TIMESThe triumph of these diaries ... is precisely this: not for one moment does Klemperer lose his essential humanity. The diaries testify to the integrity of private space and truth to self ... This is the epic of a self-confessedly commonplace mortal with extraordinary qualities of intellect, wit and self-knowledge - recording his insights with unswerving fidelity to the truth ― GUARDIAN Product Description The superb, bestselling diaries of Victor Klemperer, a Jew in Dresden who survived the war - hailed as one of the 20th century's most important chronicles.'Compulsive reading' LITERARY REVIEW 'Deeply engrossing' SPECTATOR'Klemperer's diary deserves to rank alongside that of Anne Frank' SUNDAY TIMES'A vivid and powerful account of a remarkable life' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAYJune 1945. The immediate postwar period produces many shocks and revelations - some people have behaved better than Klemperer had believed, others much worse. His sharp observations are now turned on the East German Communist Party, which he himself joins, and he notes many similarities between Nazi and Communist behaviour. Politics, he comes to believe, is above all the choice of the "lesser evil". He serves in the GDR's People's Chamber and represents East German scholarship abroad. But it is the details of everyday life, and the honesty and directness, that make these bestselling diaries so fascinating. Book Description The superb, bestselling diaries of Victor Klemperer, a Jew in Dresden who survived the war - hailed as one of the 20th century's most important chronicles.'Compulsive reading' LITERARY REVIEW 'Deeply engrossing' SPECTATOR About the Author Born in 1881, Victor Klemperer studied in Munich, Geneva and Paris. He was a journalist in Berlin, taught at the University of Naples and received a DSM during WWI as a volunteer in the German army. He was subsequently a professor of romance languages at the Dresden Technical College until he was dismissed as a consequence of Nazi laws in 1935. He survived the Holocaust and the war and taught again as an academic until his death in 1960.