Diary Of A Man In Despair

Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen

Editions

Review

What makes these diaries so interesting - as Norman Stone points out in his introduction to the Duckworth edition - is the perspective of the author: born into the Prussian aristocracy, an intellectual, living in Bavaria, a Protestant with many Catholic friends, a passionate conservative - and a fierce opponent of the Nazis and everything they stood for.

Because we know the end for Reck-Malleczewen was a Genickschuss - a shot in the neck - in Dachau in early 1945, it is impossible not to feel sad that this clear-sighted and courageous individual should have perished as so many others did.  On the other hand, it is encouraging to read evidence that there were people who never doubted what was really going on, who lamented the 'psychosis' that had overtaken those sections of the German population whose adoration of the Führer had led them, at the very least, to turn a blind eye to the crimes that were committed.

Reck-Malleczewen's views, particularly on the bourgeoisie and on industrialisation, are not those that everyone would share, but these strong opinions, sincerely and openly held, lend an authenticity to his voice and to his observations which I found very appealing.  The diaries are full of fascinating episodes - glimpses of Hitler, eyewitness accounts of atrocities, of a Nazi court - and I cannot recommend them highly enough to anyone interested in seeing the Third Reich from a different standpoint. - review by Dan Fenton