 1st edition dust jacket | |
| Author | Friedrich Kellner |
|---|---|
| Original title | "Vernebelt, verdunkelt sind alle Hirne" Tagebücher 1939-1945 |
| Translator | Robert Scott Kellner |
| Cover artist | Rob Lock |
| Language | English |
| Subject | World War II diary |
| Genre | Historical diaries |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK |
Publication date | 2011 German edition |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
Published in English | 2018 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 520 |
| ISBN | 978-1-108-41829-4 |
My Opposition (German: Mein Widerstand) is a diary secretly written by the German social democrat Friedrich Kellner (1885–1970) during World War II to describe life under Nazi Germany and to expose the propaganda and the crimes of the Nazi dictatorship. Comprising ten notebooks, it is considered by leading historians as "an important piece of historical literature."[1] The editors of the German magazine Der Spiegel called it "an image of Nazi Germany that has never existed before in such a vivid, concise and challenging form."[2] Kellner began his 861-page diary on September 1, 1939, and wrote his last entry on May 17, 1945.
In 1968, Kellner gave the diary to his American grandson, Robert Scott Kellner, to translate into English and to bring it to the attention of the public.[3] Kellner's diary is voluminous, and all the entries were handwritten in the Sütterlin script. The amount of material and possible transcription efforts dissuaded publishers from the project for many years, until in 2005 when former US president George H. W. Bush, who had been a combat pilot in World War II, arranged for the diary to be exhibited in his presidential library, which brought the diary to the public.[4]
The diary has been on exhibit in museums in America and Germany. The first exhibit was at the George Bush Presidential Library in April and May 2005 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, which took place on May 8, 1945.[5] The exhibit led to a collaboration between Robert Scott Kellner and the Holocaust Literature Research Unit at the University of Giessen in Germany to publish the diary in Germany.[6] In 2011 the diary was published in its original language by Wallstein Verlag in Göttingen, Germany, under the title, Vernebelt, verdunkelt sind alle Hirne, Tagebücher 1939-1945. (Literal translation: Clouded, darkened are all of the minds, Diaries 1939-1945.)[7] Translated abridgments followed in Russia and Poland. In 2018 Cambridge University Press published the English translation, My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner -- A German against the Third Reich.[8]
- ^ Rees, Laurence (January 20, 2018). "Meet Friedrich Kellner: the unlikely face of Nazi resistance". The Telegraph. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Schmitter, Elke (October 5, 2011). "Diaries Reveal How Much Wartime Germans Knew". Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan. Der Spiegel. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
- ^ Pritchard, Marietta (Fall 2005). "A Promise To Keep". UMASSMAG. Archived from the original on 2007-03-06. Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- ^ Schmitter, Elke (October 5, 2011). "Diaries Reveal How Much Wartime Germans Knew". Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan. Der Spiegel. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
- ^ "George Bush Presidential Library Kellner Exhibit". Retrieved 2007-04-17.
- ^ "University of Giessen Kellner Project". Retrieved 2007-04-18.
- ^ "Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, Germany".
- ^ "My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner -- A German against the Third Reich". Cambridge University Press, Cambridge U.K.