- 1942, January 31, Saturday – Since yesterday a new, extremely depressing difficulty: The house in Dolzschen appears, or is finally, lost. Notice of calling in the mortgage on July 1 was received a long time ago, but it would perhaps have been possible nevertheless to ward it off **p10
- 1942, March 6, Friday – A very icy and snow-clogged road toward Gorbitz to be cleared. Usual work, usual view over a snowy landscape, not very different from before. Only this time the knowledge: Dolzschen and your house are close by! Then another repetition of earlier feelings: You used to drive your car here! **p22
- 1942, March 24, Tuesday – The attempt to take the house away from me is now at a very serious stage. Berger, who was so friendly and such an anti-Nazi, has betrayed me. Presumably he succumbed to temptation. He has now, as I have learned from my “Aryan trustee,” Heise, the lawyer, become a “political officer”; he recently tried to acquire the house for 12,000M **p32
- 1942, April 11, Saturday morning – We are sure to lose the house now, and it is as good as certain that we shall not be paid a penny. **p37
- 1942, April 26, Sunday afternoon – He [appointed trustee] had already offered a new mortgage, but conversion of the loan required permission from the Party (that is, from district headquarters, that is, from Kohler, the brutal “pope of the Jews”), which would not be forthcoming since the local Party official in Dolzschen was in league with my tenant and prospective purchaser. **p44
- 1943, January 8, Friday morning – A new push from Dolzschen. Christmann, the mayor, has summoned me for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. [ . . . ] But I need permission to travel. I have written to Richter, whether he can act as intermediary. Eva has just taken the letter to Richter. She herself intends to go to Dolzschen tomorrow in my place… **p187
- 1943, January 13, Wednesday morning – The still unresolved Dolzschen business required a couple of trips to Richter and to the Community. This is how matters stand: The mortgage has not been foreclosed—Master Builder Linke has evidently not let himself be intimidated by the threat from the Party; **p188
- 1943, January 14, Thursday afternoon – Yesterday afternoon we were sitting over afternoon coffee. Then Steinitz appeared, the Community had telephoned the cemetery, to get a message to me immediately because of the “Journey to Dolzschen.” Since then I have not had a moment’s peace. At the Community at four, was right away chased over to the Police Presidium **p188
- 1943 – January 30, Saturday late afternoon – The mayor in Dolzschen did not know that I am restricted to the city limits and am forbidden to use public transport. Recently Frau Eger said: “The most terrible thing for me is that people always say: ‘But your husband must have done something; they don’t just kill someone for no reason!’ **p197
- 1945, May 26-June 10 – Journey summary **p494
A young man, a “loader” from Duisburg, separated from his family, sat down beside us. (Dolzschen, June 13) I got the same description of the Russians as was repeated to me before and afterward: in a sober state usually good-natured, in a drunken state quite wild, theft of watches and jewelry, frequent rapes. Soon after that someone from the landlord’s family came up: The Russians wanted to know what kind of professor I was; one had asked quite agitatedly what kind of “character” that was. **p513 - On Saturday, June 9 – I went to the barber in the morning and had my hair cut, then we waited — without having eaten, all attempts to obtain a lunch had failed — waited very skeptically in a huge crowd at the station. Had we not got transport, we would have continued on foot. [ . . . ] And so on the morning of the fifteenth day, on Sunday, June 10, we were in Dresden…
But really this Sunday is still part of our journey home, because this is when the fairy-tale turnabout came. The day began gloomily enough…
… Finally we found the Glasers’ building, it was a little damaged inside, but on the whole wonderfully preserved, with nothing but ruins all around. This was where the day turned into a fairy tale. Frau Glaser welcomed us with tears and kisses, she had thought us dead. Glaser himself was somewhat decrepit and listless. We were fed, we were able to rest. In the late afternoon we walked up to Dolzschen… **p514
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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