Wasaplatz - Victor Klemperer - A Jewish diary of life in Nazi time Dresden

Wasaplatz, at the crossing of Wasastrasse and Capar-Daavid-Friedrich-Strasse, in the distance the church towers as seen in the photograph on the right

1942, January 12, Monday – I registered my J-coupons at Wasaplatz; since then I have taken only a very few steps in the open air, have not left this area and shall not leave it again. The business of their fabulous tyranny, brutality, mocking humiliation has taken hold of me far too much. Since then, I have no longer been able to get rid of thoughts of death. **p5
1942, January 26, Monday evening – Since Friday, four days now, Eva has been completely confined to bed with serious fits of coughing, only rising to oversee a primitive supper. Shopping limited to Wasaplatz and Jew’s card, food even more wretched than usual. Everything made more difficult by the continuing frost (35 degrees of frost at night), and the fact that the rooms cannot be heated, and by my own heavy cold. Whatever time is left to me after domestic work, I use for reading aloud. **p9
1942, March 3, Tuesday evening – So today I had to be at Wolfnitz Inn at a quarter to eight. Torture getting there. Out of the house before seven. Black ice, darkness. The no. 9 at Wasaplatz so packed that I got on only after begging to be allowed to do so because I had to get to work, and I had to ding onto the edge of the platform. Changed to the no. 7 at Opemplatz. **p23
1942, April 19, Sunday – Interesting to me was the man’s complete cluelessness with respect to the miseries of the Jews. “It isn’t far for you to come. Professor, you take the tram from Wasaplatz to Georgsplatz … Oh, you are not allowed to take the tram?” — During the questioning: “First name?” — “Victor Israel.” — “By which name are you known?” — “Victor.” — “Fraulein, underline ‘Victor.'” **p40
1942, April 19, Sunday – The inherited carpet in the dining room, which I have always hated, is thick with dirt; the heavy vacuum cleaner has been broken for weeks. Before Easter I dragged it to a repair shop near Wasaplatz for Eva, but had to take the heavy thing all the way back again because the workshop was too full. “After Easter perhaps.” Meanwhile there was the prohibition on employing tradesmen “for private use.” **p42
1942, April 26, Sunday afternoon – Shortages are certainly increasing. But for Aryans to the same extent as for us? We really are hungry. Eva begged a lot during the last few days. Bread coupons from Frau Fleischer. Potatoes from Seliksohn in exchange for a meager amount of dried vegetables. A blocked strip of our potato card was partly unblocked; I pushed a handcart to Jentsch, who stops on Wasaplatz with his barrow, loaded 48 pounds for us, 36 for Frau Kreidl, and she let us have another 11 pounds for doing the fetching. Eva carried two heavy bags from the Seliksohns’ supplier in town; **p44
1942, May 8, Friday midday – But yesterday also this. On Wasaplatz two gray-haired ladies, teachers of about sixty years of age, such as often came to my lectures and talks. They stop, one comes toward me, holding out her hand, I think: a former auditor, and raise my hat. But I do not know her after all, nor does she introduce herself. She only smiles and shakes my hand, says: “You know why!” and goes off before I can say a word. Such demonstrations (dangerous for both parties!) are said to happen frequently. The opposite of the recent: “Why are you still alive, you rogue?!” And both of these in Germany, and in the middle of the twentieth century. **p48
1942, May 19, Tuesday toward evening – With bad pains in my throat I lugged up 30 pounds of potatoes from our van trader on Wasaplatz. There the man already had my card in his hand, when a young female, dyed-blond hair, dangerously narrowminded-looking face, perhaps a shopkeeper’s wife, stepped up from behind: “I was here first—the Jew has to wait.” Jentsch served her obediently, and the Jew waited. Now it is almost seven o’clock, and for the next two hours the Jew is again waiting for the house search (which usually takes place in the evening). **p55
1942, May 23, Saturday afternoon – We shall only gradually discover what has been lost, since of course no one is allowed to watch while the looting is going on. So a handcart had to be found for these cases, and we wearers of the star are not allowed to go out after 9:00 p.m. So Eva off to the shopkeeper on Wasaplatz. Without success. Friedheim said, the gardener opposite opens at six and would definitely give his cart. He and I will set out together with Frau Kreidl at half past six. **p58
1942, June 6, Saturday toward evening – Yesterday we inherited a potato-ration card from Ida Kreidl. Eva brought 44 pounds in two bags from town on the tram; I waited for her at Wasaplatz, and then hauled the bags up here from the tram. Now we shall again have enough to eat for a few days. We, c’est a dire, I. Quantitatively Eva eats much less, and at lunchtime she eats a bowl of something or other in town. Lately I have found it hard to do without saccharin; the last 500 pills fell victim to the house search. **p67
1942, July 3, Friday morning – Yesterday I accompanied Eva (as I do frequently now) to Wasaplatz. There (after distressing—the star!—waiting) I take the purchases from her, and she goes in citta. As we were on our way yesterday we met the newspaper woman as she was collecting the monthly payments. Eva went up to her: “I’ll also pay for Kreidl downstairs.” We both immediately had the same thought: “Avoid the doorbell being rung, otherwise they’ll get an awful fright!” **p91
1942, July 27, Monday toward evening – As I was waiting for Eva at Wasaplatz today [… ] I noticed again, as so often, how many pregnant women there were, and how emphatically they stuck out their full stomachs. Once pregnancy was concealed, now it is affirmed. I read that certain Australasian Negroes, when they want to display themselves as men of fashion, flirtatiously hold out their penises between two fingers. These females are now similarly flirtatious with their pregnancies. They bear their stomachs like a Party badge. **p111
1942, July 29, Wednesday afternoon – At about two I went to Wasaplatz to meet Eva, I knew she was there buying potatoes at Jentsch’s handcart and wanted to carry the net for her. She had got there before one, and I had to wait more than an hour before I was able to haul the precious ten pounds of potatoes and a couple of cabbages home. Dead tired and out of humor. **p111
1942, August 17, Monday evening – I have wiped the hallway floor, in the morning I was at Frau Hirschel’s in sultry heat (wearing my coat!) and in the afternoon fetched 4 pfennigs worth of milk on Wasaplatz: so the pen does not obey my hand. **p143
1942, August 23, Sunday morning – At Woolworth’s one can buy a toothbrush if one hands in a used one in return. — Toilet paper, tissue paper, paper napkins nowhere to be had. The day before yesterday our grocer at Wasaplatz was dispensing single rolls—but only against household cards, which we don’t have. Of the new (the new) potatoes, which are now being supplied more plentifully (seven pounds per head per week—it should be ten pounds soon), we have to throw a large proportion away, because they are completely rotten. **p131

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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