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PARTISAN REVIEW
Goldhagen's book did not become the subject of great attention, seIl–
ing only 6,334 copies in Israel, nor did his visit cause a stir (in fact, it
took place behind the closed doors of the Holocaust Research Institute
at Yad Vashem). And another book, the diaries of Victor Klemperer
(l
Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years),
created quite a commo–
tion in Germany, and failed altogether to reach Israel. Klemperer, a pro–
fessor of Romance language literature at Dresden University, and a
converted Jew married to a German, survived the entire Nazi period in
Dresden. The commercial success of Klemperer's diaries in Germany
exceeded all expectations, placing the former East German publishing
house Aufbau on firm footing. I do not know whether an Israeli pub–
lisher is currently arranging for the book to be translated into Hebrew,
but if so, I doubt there would be much of a readership-most likely, if
translated into Hebrew, it would be used as a text for a class on the his–
torical sources of Nazism at one of Israel's universities.
Why do Klemperer's diaries manage to arouse such great interest in
Germany, while in Israel-beyond the academic audience-nothing has
yet been heard about them? Perhaps, paradoxically, for the very same
reason: for the educated German public, Klemperer is fascinating
because, although he has a Jewish backgtound, he does not represent
the ultimate stranger. A Christian of Jewish origin, married to a Christ–
ian German woman, with pronounced German nationalist feelings, sur–
rounded by a German social and professional circle remote from
Judaism and hostile to Jewish nationalism, Klemperer is a German in
almost all respects, apart from his origin. In the course of the
1930S,
Klemperer becomes a Jew while continuing to be a German. As a result,
he enables many Germans to feel for the first time what they do not suc–
ceed in feeling when they are incapable of going beyond their German
perceptions. He arouses identification. He is like them, and they can feel
his isolation in the most intimate fashion, since his external and inter–
nal worlds are familiar to them.
If
Israeli readers were provided with access to Klemperer's text in
Hebrew, it is not clear what they would feel about it. Klemperer's Ger–
man nationalism would probably arouse objections on their part, while
his hostility towards manifestations of Jewish identity, and in particular
his hate for Zionism, could only anger the Israelis. For the educated
German reader, Klemperer is a counterpart who simply lived through a
dark period, while in the eyes of the educated Israeli he is a strange and
alien creature, and certainly will not arouse any particular identifica–
tion.
