I Will Bear Witness Essay

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History has consistently witnessed how wars have caused the demise of countless dynasties, countries, and races. One such modern example of war is the Nazi propaganda led by Adolf Hitler against the European Jews who he considered “a mighty counterpart” and “a parasite” to his “superior” Aryan culture. (Mein Kampf) Adolf Hitler’s deep-seated mindset of “Survival of the fittest race” and radical anti-semitic words had plagued several Aryan soldiers to willingly or unwillingly lift arms and participate in causing bloodshed of roughly six million Jewish men, women and children in Europe between 1941-1943. The diary I Will Bear Witness penned by Victor Klemperer talks about his survival as a German Protestant-Jewish convert during the Nazi Germany …show more content…

Klemperer’s German friends had stopped contacting him, paving the way to his social death. He recounted on a Saturday afternoon that “there is no word from the Köhlers ...(as) a civil servant is not allowed to consort with ‘Jews and other disreputable elements.’” (May 16, 1936) The Nuremberg Laws prohibited mixed marriages between Jews and German state subjects to preserve “the purity of the German blood.” (Lec 8) The laws increased the severity of his social life as he was in a mixed marriage with an Aryan-musician Eva Schlemmer that was shunned by the legislation. “I feel old; I have no confidence in my heart, I do not believe that I have much time left to me ... I cannot imagine how I would bear the pressure, the humiliation, the uncertainty and the loneliness without Eva.” The confession of losing hope and his gratefulness to Eva showed how the frowned upon mixed marriage was his only motivation to continue with his life. In addition, Klemperer felt humiliated as he did not qualify financially or professionally to immigrate to a different country and start fresh like his siblings. “The women in our family are also leaving Germany, and sometimes my staying here seems dishonorable to me—but what should I, who could not be a language teacher, do

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