The Referential and the Relational: Victor Klemperer's Diaries in the Nazi Years

Abstract

To what extent do Victor Klemperer's diaries from the years of Nazi rule in Germany have referential value for conveying factual detail about how a German who has been classified as Jewish survived anti-Semitism and the war, and to what extent does their significance lie in their relationality, i.e. their accounts of the interactions Klemperer has with those around him? Against the background of Aleida Assmann's ideas on the limits of ‘positivist historiography’ and a rapprochement between history and memory, this analysis shows how Klemperer captures the detail of everyday life, while being acutely aware of his limited access to reliable information about what is going on around him. In his accounts of experiences at the hands of non-Jewish Germans and his processing of those experiences he also conveys the complex reality that must be grasped by anyone attempting to summarize popular attitudes to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.