Barre bevrijding

by Victor Klemperer

In ‘Barre bevrijding’ geeft de Joodse schrijver Victor Klemperer een beeld van hoe de bevrijding er in 1945 in Duitsland uitzag. In de nacht waarin Dresden met de grond gelijk wordt gemaakt, februari 1945, weet hij met zijn vrouw Eva uit de stad te vluchten. Te voet beginnen zij aan een chaotische zwerftocht, dwars door de ondergaande nazistaat. In mei 1945 wordt Zuid-Duitsland door de Amerikanen bevrijd, en begint voor De Klemperers een helse tocht terug door een verwoest Duitsland. Krioelende massa’s vluchtelingen, soldaten en nazi’ iedereen zit op de rand van uitputting en is op zoek naar voedsel en onderdak. In juni 1945 bereiken ze hun huis in Dresden, dat wonderlijk genoeg bijna onaangetast is gebleven. Pas dan begint hun bevrijding.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Victor Klemperer (9 October 1881 – 11 February 1960) worked as a commercial apprentice, a journalist and eventually a Professor of Literature, specialising in the French Enlightenment at the Technische Universität Dresden. His diaries detailing his life under successive German states -the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic- were published in 1995. His recollections on the Third Reich have since become standard sources; extensively quoted by Saul Friedlander, Michael Burleigh and Richard J. Evans.

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since their publication in 1995 the diaries of Victor Klemperer (1881-1961) have been among the most striking testimonials on the Nazi persecution. Klemperer was a literature professor, and one of the few Jews to survive the Second World War in Germany itself. The complete diaries themselves cover not only the period of the ultra-short "Millennial Reich" (1933-1945), but also the period afterwards, when Klemperer became one of the cultural figureheads of Soviet-led East Germany.

This small book (only available in Dutch, under the title 'Harsh Liberation') contains only his diary notes on the last half year of the war, from January until June 1945. The most evocative episode is the description of the gruesome bombing of Klemperer's hometown of Dresden, in which the Allies wiped almost the entire city center off the map with incendiary bombs and killed up to 25,000 people. Klemperer describes it all from his own perspective, with a lucid eye for the confusion and desperation, illustrated in touching details. The rest of the diary is devoted to the flight to Southern Bavaria, the arrival of the Americans, and the difficult return journey to Dresden, which was now in the Russian occupation zone.

During the reading I wondered to what extent these notes reflect the actual diary that Klemperer kept (he repeatedly mentions how difficult it was to get something on paper amidst the chaotic events), and to what extent they were subsequently edited. Oddly enough, I found little information about this on the internet. Based on this small book, I have the impression that it is a fairly authentic reproduction. Klemperer also shows us his petty side, for example when expressing his horror for the smelly, noisy, ‘folksy’ people and repeatedly invoking his academic title to claim privileges.

All in all, this is a striking testimony of a period of chaos, upheaval and salvation, in the transition from the Nazi regime to the Allied occupation. Klemperer rightly writes: "Have we not experienced continuously, since 1914 and especially since 1933, and recently to an increasing degree, the most improbable, the most horrendous; has the previously completely unimaginable not become self-evident and plain for us?"

[Lili Bammens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boeiend onderwerp maar nogal chaotisch beschreven.