Antisemitism According to Victor Klemperer

Abstract

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960) was born in Germany to a Jewish family and later became an outstanding specialist of French literature. As a full professor of Latin letters at Dresden Technical University from 1920, he had strong ties to the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Diderot. The importance of speaking about Victor Klemperer in the context of anti-Semitism relates to his analysis of the totalitarian Nazi regime, after he and his wife spent the twelve years of terror in Germany. Klemperer was a true representative of the dream of so many Jews, ever since the Jewish Emancipation was promoted in Germany by Moses Mendelssohn at the end of the 18th century, to be accepted by the German society. Klemperer and his wife Eva Schlemmer, a Lutheran pianist, chose not to leave Germany despite the increasing Nazi influence. According to Peter Gay, Klemperer is one of the most important German diarists. Keywords: anti-Semitism; Dresden Technical University; Eva Schlemmer; Germany; Jewish family; Jews; Nazi; Victor Klemperer