Friedrich Kellner

August Friedrich Kellner (1 February 1885 – 4 November 1970) (pronounce) was a German social democrat, justice inspector and author of My Opposition, a secret diary, in the time of the Nazi period in Germany. His ten-volume diary was on exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, in 2005. In 2007, CCI Entertainment in Toronto, Canada, made the documentary, My Opposition : the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner. Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, is preparing the diary for publication.

My Opposition (1939 - 1945)

Translated from the original German. Quotes from the diary are in chronological order.

• To trample democracy with one’s feet and to give power to a single man over almost eighty million people is so terrible that one can very probably tremble over the events which will come here.
  • September 17, 1939

• Terror is trump. Common, brutal suppression methods are considered as sanctified laws. “Old Fighters” are holy ones. From the district leader upwards there are only Gods!
  • October 7, 1939

• The “Conqueror from Berlin,” as he has named himself, has completely conquered Germany. And not only that. Unfortunately, many, all too many Germans living abroad, also have fallen for the cunning propaganda.
  • October 14, 1939

• Why only hate? Where does love remain? Or at least a little decency toward other people? Exactly the same as we behaved against the Jews, we now wish to do against all other people who are in our way, to smash, crush - yes, even exterminate.
  • March 30, 1940

• The butchering may continue as it will, it shall remain the historical guilt of the Western powers that they did not promptly provide the sharpest preventative measures against the continued attack-politics Germany undertook. Possibilities existed for this, but no measures were seized upon.
  • May 29, 1940

• Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant.
  • May 29, 1940

• Now the following questions have to be raised: did the occupation of other countries improve our own happiness? Does the individual German get anything out of such conquests? Won't we get into trouble with another powerful nation some place tomorrow or the day after? The differences in interests among the large nations will not be diminished by expanding ourselves.
  • October 7, 1940

• The world will rightfully be upset over so much inhumanity, and a hate will burn that can never be extinguished. How long will this reign of terror continue?
  • October 26, 1941

• There is no punishment that would be hard enough to be applied to these Nazi beasts. Of course, in the case of this coming retribution, the innocent will have to suffer along with them. Ninety-nine percent of the German population have directly or indirectly the guilt for the present situation. Therefore we can only say, those who travel together hang together.
  • October 28, 1941

• The children are designated as “Air Force aides of the Hitler youth” and wear military uniforms and become used to handling the anti-aircraft artillery flak guns. 15 and 16 year old children as warriors! If the war still continues to last for a long time, perhaps the babies will be also employed. Total war!!
  • December 14, 1943

• The party uses the lies up to the last breath as a cover-up. Thus it intimidates the political opponents and provides its party comrade with sedatives. It is so unbelievably simple for the current gang to lie to the German people and to lead these fools around by the nose.
  • March 26, 1945

• We can bear up under everything, if we have only the certainty that the monster Hitler with his insatiable bloodletting and plundering will have committed soon his last shameful deed.
  • March 28, 1945

• The craziest of all political systems, the unique dictatorship, found its earned end. History will note for eternity that the German people were not able on their own initiative to shake off the yoke of the National Socialists. The victory of the Americans, English and Russians was a necessary occurrence to disrupt the National Socialists’ delusions and plans for world domination.
  • May 1, 1945

• If now, after the collapse, should any of these lackeys of Adolf Hitler have the insolence to claim they were merely harmless onlookers, let them feel the scourge of avenging mankind …. Whoever cries about having lost the Nazi system or wants to resurrect National Socialism is to be treated as a lunatic.
  • May 8, 1945

Attributed

• Gutenberg, your printing press has been violated by this evil book!
  • On Mein Kampf, in Kellner's political speeches against the Nazis, 1926 - 1932. “Tagebücher gegen den Terror,” Mainz Allgemeine Zeitung, Mainz, Germany, September 24, 2005.

• I could not fight the Nazis in the present, as they had the power to still my voice, so I decided to fight them in the future.
  • “Ich entschloss mich, die Nazis in der Zukunft zu bekämpfen,” Giessener Anzeiger, Giessen, Germany, April 6, 2005.

• Every person has the choice between Good and Evil. Choose Good, and stand against those who would choose Evil.
  • “Welt muss mehr denn je diese Botschaft hören,” Giessener Allgemeine Zeitung, Giessen, Germany, April 12, 2005

• My main goal after the war was to help rebuild the Social Democratic Party that Hitler had banned, and use it to reunite the people of Germany who had forgotten how a democracy worked – through tolerance, compromise and a dedication to individual freedom.
  • “Search led to family, diary and a cause,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), April 22, 2007.

• You cannot begin to instruct a madman who is intent on injuring your family; only after you have removed the weapon from his hand, dare you give him a pencil in its place.
  • Unpublished 1968 journal by R. S. Kellner.

• When dictators enslave their own people and seek to impose their anti-democratic ideology upon others, when evil seeks power, men and women of good will must set aside their own differences of opinion and stand together and fight – including those who hate war.
  • “German’s war diary goes public,” Washington Times, UPI News, March 25, 2005.