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"From far away you can still hear gunfire from time to time, units and reconnaissance planes fly over us almost every hour, they say ... individual groups were still fighting in the mountains." Victor Klemperer (1881–1960) noted this on May 8, 1945 in his diary. "Rumor after rumor ... We talk to the returnees; they all know nothing but rumors. ”The power to the radio had been cut for days. Only a mill owner who had his own electrical system heard on the radio that Admiral Dönitz "signed the absolute surrender with the delivery of all submarines and" small submarines "". It was not until May 11th that “brought some consolation, ie a certain improvement in the situation”.

Victor Klemperer and his wife Eva experienced the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, initially on 6/7. May 1945 in front of the Western Allies in Reims, then on the night of May 8th to 9th at the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. Since his discharge from the TU Dresden, the professor of Romance studies had little more than to keep his now famous and bestseller diary. As a “valid Jew” according to the Nuremberg Race Laws, he recorded the consequences of growing exclusion and disenfranchisement.

Coming from a reformed rabbi family, Klemperer converted to Protestantism in 1912 and married the Protestant pianist Eva Schlemmer.

That saved him from deportation, but forced both of them to go on an odyssey through the “Jewish houses” of Dresden.

After the bombing of 13/14

In February 1945 they tore off their Jewish stars and fled the city.

Both experienced the end of the war near Aichach in Swabia.

During these days too, Klemperer gave testimony in his diaries of life in the catastrophe and the vague feeling of having escaped it.

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When they saw airplanes, the Klemperers remarked with astonishment "that we no longer seek cover, have no more fear and yet remember our past fear with every aircraft".

After numerous unpleasant experiences, fear also prevented the refugees from identifying themselves.

“To get real help, I would have to dedicate myself to being a Jew.

I would only like to do that when I can definitely and immediately get away from the local area. "

Eve's health “is still not very satisfactory ... Now the danger to life is over, we are well fed up with the small but summed up ailments of our condition and can no longer find any compensation in his romance.

But the feeling of gratitude is always there. "

The American troops provided security, so that "the milk truck has been running like it used to be".

But rumors got around that there would be a war between the US and the Soviet Union and that the Americans had given Russia an ultimatum.

In talks, "the war between the USA and Russia ... still plays a major role".

Or vice versa: "The Russians are said to have declared war on the Americans." Rumors.

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“I asked the woman (from Munich) whether she had heard anything from Hitler and the other greats of the NSDAP;

no, she hadn't had time to ask about it, in other words: she didn't care anymore.

The 3rd Reich is almost forgotten, everyone has been his enemy, 'always' has been. "

Already after the invasion of the Americans, Klemperer had noted: “But none of those who undoubtedly were a Nazi said they were.

Where is the truth, how can it be found even approximately? "

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