'Then the coffin was carried out of the hall into the side room, the men stepped forward, the rabbi read a long Hebrew prayer, the men broke in with many Omiens, the women stood by the benches. Before that, those who carried the coffin washed their hands. No music. The deceased, who will in fact be cremated in Berlin, is supposed to have been very rich. It was noticeable how shabbily the males among the fairly large number of mourners were dressed.-My own need of clothing has gradually become grotesque. I have to save my 'good' suit and what I have is literally fraying away, I could at most try to buy worn items from the clothes store of the the Jewish Community. Feder told us recently that even before a corpse is cold the Jewish Community is asking for the things. Frau Voss is concocting a plan to obtain one Moral's suits for me. But the man was much slighter than I am, socks from the fallen Haselbarth, perhaps a suit from Moral, who killed himself-Jewish clothing in the 3rd Reich.'.
Thursday 18th July
An excerpt from 'I Shall Bear Witness -The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-1941' first published in German in 1995, translated into English by Martin Chalmers 1998.
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