About

The making of

This is a personal project, currently covering only part 2 of the diaries from 1942 to 1945 . The idea came to me when watching the movie “Never look away (Werk ohne Autor)”, which starts in Nazi time Dresden (Trailer). When seeing the Art Academy and the buses with their destination signs, when the child’s aunt Elisabeth is sent to the psychiatric clinic in Arnsdorf, and never came back – it occurred to me that most of those places still exist. The Art Academy is still there, and Arnsdorf Psychiatric Clinic is still there.
Looking at Klemperer’s books sitting on my shelf I started wondering: What if I could connect his diary entries to the actual places?

The final inspiration came when I found his diaries as an online edition with metadata, which enabled me to link to the individual entries, rather than to the book as a whole, and to connect specific pages with Google Street View and other online resources.

After some trial and error, finding the right publishing platform, finding the right way to visually organise everything, restricted by limited technical skill (I’m not a web developer), trying, deleting and starting over again, I settled on what you are seeing here.

Note on Amazon links: I’m not an affiliate, I do not earn any commission on any Amazon purchases.

Discoveries I

Building this website was a fascinating journey of learning and discoveries. Most shocking for me – how close some of his places have been to my life in Dresden. 

It soon became obvious that if we had lived at the same time, I could have bumped into him or his friends.
That leads me straight back to the present.
As we go about our lives, how do we treat each other? What do we do when certain groups get marginalized for their looks or beliefs, when individuals get mistreated in public?

I do hope this website makes other people ask themselves similar questions; and makes people think about how we want to live as a society. Regardless of which country are from or live in.

Dicoveries II

The vast and complete destruction of Dresden on February 13th 1945: Contrasting the historic photos with Street View of modern Dresden, seeing all those new builds from the 60ies and 70ies – realising how much was lost, how little is left of the Dreden he knew.

The loss of local enterprise and its thriving middle class during communism: Researching on AltesDresden.de I noticed how Dresden was full of privately owned small shops, cafes, and backyard factories. What was left after the war, was de-privatised, and transferred into “people’s property”, and still not back to where it was.

Eva Klemperer – A remarkable woman I would have liked to find out more about: The courage to take his diary notes to safe places at risk of her own life, her smoking habit in the grimmest moments, her seeing opportunity in the chaotic aftermath of the Dresden bombing, her taking charge of their escape to Bavaria.
I did some research on her, sadly there doesn’t seem to be much about her online.. The most comprehensive information I could find was on her German Wikipedia Page.

Copy of Eva Klemperer’s passport
Credit: Deutsche Fotothek

Victor Klemperer – Decides to remain in the Russian-occupied zone believing the communist administration is better at breaking with the past and continues his diaries The Lesser Evil: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945-1959 until his death.
Despite his uneasiness with the communist system, even comparing its language to the Lingua Tertii Imperii, he still joins the party and parliament and becomes part of the political establishment. Aware of his contradictions he tries to navigate the complexities of his time, balancing conflicting values and ambitions.
Whilst it might be easy to judge him for his choices after 1945, I believe it would be rather unfair, as he illustrates life’s complexities and contradictions and people trying to make the best of it.

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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