Author Description

Presents four German diaries from 1933, including one by a Jew and one by a non-Jewish Nazi sympathizer married to a Jew. The diaries present a cross-section of German reactions, observations, and attitudes in regard to Hitler's rise to power. The diary of Jewish lawyer Kurt Fritz Rosenberg (pp. 31-125), born in Hamburg in 1900, keeps track of German news, events, and rumors, as well as international developments and their effects on Jewish life in Germany. Rosenberg carefully lists facts and rumors about antisemitic events and examines their effect on his own well-being. As the Nazis solidified their power, he became increasingly eager to emphasize his own integrity as a German, anchored in the country's cultural tradition. His diary, nevertheless, testifies to his gradual exclusion and threatened professional life. In April 1933 he lost his employment, as did 43 other Jewish lawyers in Hamburg. Throughout the year he contemplated emigration. In 1938, as recounted in the introduction to the diary by Beate Meyer (pp. 15-30), Rosenberg finally emigrated to the U.S. with his wife and daughter. Luise Solmitz's diary (pp. 143-270, also introduced by Meyer) traces the cooling of an initially ardent Nazi fan's enthusiasm, as the identity of her Jewish-born husband, Friedrich, became a critical issue in their lives and the whole family, which included a daughter, was subjected to antisemitism.