Language of the Third Reich

Victor Klemperer (1881-1960), a front-line veteran of the First World War, became Professor of French Literature at Dresden University. He was taken from his university in 1935 because he was Jewish, and only survived because of his marriage to an Aryan.

• Heroism (Instead of an Introduction) \ 1. LTI \ 2. Prelude \3. Distinguishing Feature: Poverty \ 4. Partenau \ 5. From the Diary of theFirst Year \ 6. The First Three Words of the Nazi Language \ 7. Aufziehen \ 8. Ten Years of Fascism \ 9.Fanatical \ 10. Autocthonous Writing \ 11. Blurring Boundaries \ 12.Punctuation \ 13. Names \ 14. Kohlenklau\ 15. Knif \ 16. On a Single Working Day \ 17. 'System' and 'Organisation' \ 18. I Believe In Him \ 19. Personal Announcementsas an LTI Revision Book \ 20. What Remains? \ 21. German Roots \ 22. A Sunny Weltanschauung (Chance Discoveries WhileReading) \ 23. If Two People Do the Same Thing... \ 24. Café Europa \ 25. TheStar \ 26. The Jewish War \ 27. The Jewish Spectacles \ 28. The Language of theVictor \ 29. Zion \ 30. The Curse of the Superlative \ 31. From the GreatMovement Forward... \ 32. Boxing \ 33. Gefolgschaft \ 34. The One Syllable \ 35.Running Hot and Cold \ 36. Putting the Theory to the Test \ ''Cos of Certain Expressions' (AnAfterword) \ Index.

It is obscene, in a sense, to relate Klemperer's situation to any subsequent intellectual enquiry conducted unmolested by tyranny. But studies of language - whether social, political or aesthetic - owe him a debt. They implicitly gesture towards his act of witness, and towards others like it.