diaries of Victor Klemperer 1945 - 1959: the lesser evil

Opens in June 1945 when Klemperer's observations are now turned on the East German Communist Party, which he himself joins, and he notes many similarities between Nazi and Communist behaviour. Politics, he comes to believe, is above all the choice of the "lesser evil". He is made a professor in Greifswald, then in Berlin and Halle. He serves in the GDR's People's Chamber and represents East German scholarship abroad. But it is the details of everyday life, and the honesty and directness, that make these diaries so fascinating.