1942, June 4, Thursday midday – Seliksohn also said that very many Aryans, soldiers and civilians, were being shot “one after the other,” in Torgau, in the court building on Münchner Platz, on the rifle ranges on the heath. There was talk of blood pouring into the drains. **p66
- 1943, January 30, Saturday late afternoon – The bodies of Jews from the Protectorate, who were condemned to death. They were brought to Dresden for execution. In the county court building on Münchner Platz, there is an electrically powered guillotine, a head every two minutes; not just Jewish ones; the main killing time is 6:00 P.M., often as many as twenty-five heads fall one after the other. I unhesitatingly assume that “often” and the number are exaggerations, but even if only half of it is true … **p196
- 1943, February 14, Sunday midday – I mentioned the six executed Jews from the Protectorate whose corpses had recently been handed over to the Jewish cemetery. He: An acquaintance had been transferred to the county court at Münchner Platz and had the job of seizing the valuables of those condemned to death; Richter knows from this man [… ] how busy the guillotine here is: Recently 21 (twenty-one) heads had fallen on one day, by no means only Jewish ones. —
- – Eva must take the diary to Annemarie again soon. The guillotine at Münchner Platz goes to work for less cause. **p201
- 1943, February 24, Wednesday morning – The guillotine at Münchner Platz [… ] threatens me; it also threatens Richter. Is what he hints at true? [… ] The Eastern Front is falling back, but there has been no breakthrough; in Italy all is calm, and in Tunisia there have even been successes announced. And yesterday was an exhaustingly warm spring day, and a thaw has already been mentioned once in the military bulletins of recent days. But if there is one, then the Russian offensive will come to a halt, and the German army will have time to lick its wounds and prepare a summer offensive. **p203
- 1943, April 16, Friday midday and later – Immediately afterward one of them put his head through the halfopen door and said in a low voice: “Chin up!” I look at him in surprise. Whereupon he: “These damned swine—the things they’re doing—in Poland—they drive me into a rage, too. Chin up, it won’t last. . . they can’t last another winter in Russia. — Chin up, things’ll get better . ..” At which point his mate came back, and he stopped and left. His mate was certainly no friend of the Nazis either, otherwise I would never have seen the pot [… ] again—but who trusts his workmate today? At Münchner Strasse there’s a guillotine. **p214
- 1943, June 27, Sunday afternoon – Richter had already been in prison for four weeks; it was not known why, and who had denounced him. He was at Münchner Platz, since the Gestapo cells at police headquarters were crowded. His case would be tried in about three weeks; he was allowed a lawyer. — My very first reaction was to be almost quietly pleased or amused that my protector and guardian was now worse off than myself, that Aryans, too, were personally experiencing the hand of tyranny, that indeed it was a sign of weakness, that this tyranny was ever increasing. **p241
- 1943, December 17, Friday toward evening – A new man has turned up at Mobius: Coen—stage name Klaus. My age, looks much younger. Was operetta singer, buffo, dancer. [… ] Viennese, of course. His relatives there are recognized as being of mixed race. Here he is not. Was in prison for months for omitting the name Israel. Among other places he was held at Münchner Platz, was near the guillotine. He heard the blade fall “and each time the ringing of the death knell afterward. About sixteen times a week—then; today there is more work for the chopper.” **p279
Credit: AltesDresden.de
Source:
- ** I Will Bear Witness, Volume 2: A Diary of the Nazi Years: 1942-1945, Victor Klemperer, Publisher : Modern Library; Illustrated edition
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