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(There are 2 messages below. -ed.)
1.
Submitted by: Christian A. Nielsen
can19@columbia.edu
Professor Rogers raises many salient points in his commentary on the
Klemperer Diaries. I, too, hope that this will open a new and dynamic
thread of discussion on the list. I would like to contribute four points:.
1. Regarding Professor Rogers's comment concerning the "conundrum" of
choosing applicable excerpts from these massive diaries for classroom use, I
would recommend using the well-chosen excerpts published in _The New
Yorker_. (I unfortunately don't have the issue date at hand, but it should
be easy to find.) These excerpts could be combined with one of the reviews
of the Klemperer diaries which Professor Rogers mentions. Given this, and a
bit of context from the instructor, I think class discussion would be
productive at almost any undergraduate or graduate level. One of the great
benefits of the diaries are their combination of quotidian observations with
the type of shrewd analysis one would expect from a German university
professor.
2. It would be interesting to discuss the organization of the diary. When I
first borrowed the diaries from the library, I instantly looked for certain
"key" dates in Nazi Germany to see what Klemperer's reactions were. To my
surprise, these dates are often missing or Klemperer's comments do not
immediately touch on the major political developments of these dates.
Instead, there often seems to be a delay, before Klemperer actually comments
on these developments. In a recent discussion of the diaries here at
Columbia University, the point was raised that this delay could perhaps be
explained as function of psychological shock. I.e., although Klemperer
obviously witnessed the events, it took a while before he assimilated them
and felt prepared to comment on them; the German verb "wahrnehmen" comes to
mind in this context.
3. Does anyone know why the title of the diaries was changed for the US
translation? In Germany, Aufbau Verlag published it as _Ich will Zeugnis
ablegen bis zum letzten_ ("I will bear witness until the end"). In the US,
the diaries are simply called _I Will Bear Witness_. Depending on your
reading of the German title, this either subtracts a tone of defiance and/or
resignation from the title.
4. Finally, could anyone explain why the German original of the Klemperer
diaries are filled with ellipses? I have not looked at the US version, so I
do not know whether the ellipses are equally abundant there. From a
historian's perspective, the sheer number of ellipses in the Klemper diaries
raises some obvious questions. Aufbau Verlag does not provide any
explanation for the many ellipses, at least in the volumes I examined. Did
they have problems deciphering his handwriting? Were pages missing, warped,
or torn? I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could address this point.
Christian A. Nielsen
Columbia University
2.
Submitted by: Bruce Campbell
bbcamp@facstaff.wm.edu
Dan:
I have not used the later diaries, but have just assigned some short
selections from the 1918-1932 ones in a course on the Weimar Republic.
Given the length, it struck me as impossible to assign more than a few
short selections (in German) if I wanted to use other readings as well.
Unles you have a proseminar, I would suggest selections, with perhaps an
option to have students use the entire diary for a lengthy paper or
project. I will use this as a choice for the final.
Hope this helps.
Bruce Campbell
Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures
College of William & Mary
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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