Reddit reviews I Will Bear Witness 1942-1945: A Diary of the Nazi Years

In Victor Klemperer's diary published in volumes from 1933 to 1941 and from 1942 to 1945, he describes how even in Germany small pockets of the Jewish population remained all the way to the end. Every week a few were picked up from his friends' circle never to return, and as early as 1941 he writes it was generally known that if you went to these camps, you died.

Klemperer himself was a jew who fell between the cracks of subsequent waves of arrests. He a) was married to a German woman, b) had converted to Protestantism before WWI, c) had served in the German army during WWI and most importantly d) they had no children, so hadn't "produced mixed offspring" (families with mixed children were prioritized for the camps). Hitler himself had signed laws giving a special pension to WWI veterans, so Klemperer created a head scratcher for nazi bureaucrats who didn't know how to deal with it, so they always let him go after questioning.

Amazingly enough, he was saved by the Dresden bombing. Klemperer lived in the outskirts of Dresden, and could flee to allied territory when the city was in chaos after the firebombing.

For one personal view, take a look at the diaries of Victor Klemperer. One volume, I Will Bear Witness, covers the years 1933-1941. Another volume covers the years 1942-1945. (I think there are four volumes in the English translation.)

Klemperer was a professor in Dresden when the Nazis came to power. He lost his position at the university due to Nazi edicts, eventually worked in a factory, was moved (with his wife, who was not classified as a Jew) to a Judenhaus, and was about to be sent to a concentration camp when Dresden was bombed by the allies. He and his wife fled in the confusion of the bombing and made their way to allied forces.

His diary gives interesting insight not only into his thought processes about the changes around him, but also some glimpse of the society around him. It's been several years since I read this, but I recall reading of his trip on a street car and his comments on the reactions of various people seeing someone wearing the yellow star (I'm sorry, but I don't remember the details of this exchange to recount it here). Another interesting detail is to read his thoughts on conversations that he had with friends who either planned to leave Germany themselves or tried to encourage him to leave. His diaries also raise questions about the identity of one's self versus the identity placed on a person by others.

>A military target is something targeted by the military

So you would agree that Dresden, targeted by the military, was a military target? I'm sorry, I think I can see what you're trying to say here, and I understand what you mean. I would include, however, that Dresden was being used as a supply depot for the German military, one that was fighting the Soviets not 100 kms from Dresden.

The Allies agreed at the Yalta conference (Feb 4-11, 1945) to begin bombing targets that would help the Soviets advance. Dresden was a city that was supplying the German army fighting the Soviets. Before this agreement, Dresden was not on Bomber Command's radar screen because there were other higher priority targets. After the agreement, however, Dresden was bumped to the top of the list, as we can see by the raid being planned for February 14-15th, only a few days after the conference.

So, did dropping the bomb save Soviet soldiers' lives? Yes, it undoubtedly did. Did it save the life of Victor Klemperer? Yes, it did. Did it cost the lives of thousands of German civilians? Unfortunately, yes it did.

I'm not trying to justify or condemn, just trying to throw some facts into a debate that is nearly always devoid of them. I did in fact mean that Dresden was a 'perfect' raid in a military sense. In a moral vacuum, the raid could not have gone any better, much to the chagrin of the people on the ground.