At the end of World War Two, most Germans said they knew nothing about the mass murders of the Jews. But as early as October 28, 1941, Kellner wrote the following entry in his diary:
A soldier on vacation here said he witnessed a terrible atrocity in the occupied parts of Poland. He watched as naked Jewish men and women were placed in front of a long deep ditch and upon the order of the SS were shot by Ukrainians in the back of their heads and they fell into the ditch. Then the ditch was filled with dirt even as he could still hear screams coming from people still alive in the ditch. These inhuman atrocities were so terrible that some of the Ukrainians, who were used as tools, suffered nervous breakdowns. All the soldiers who had knowledge of these bestial actions of these Nazi sub-humans were of the opinion that the German people should be shaking in their shoes because of the coming retribution. There is no punishment that would be hard enough to be applied to these Nazi beasts. Of course, when the retribution comes, the innocent will have to suffer along with them. But because ninety percent of the German population is guilty, directly or indirectly, for the present situation, we can only say that those who travel together will hang together.
There is not much in the diary about the Kellners’ personal lives. Instead, Friedrich Kellner wrote about the political atmosphere of a country run by terrorists. He also wrote about the leaders and people in other nations who remained indifferent to what Hitler and Mussolini were planning. Kellner was very angry that millions of people had to die because a few politicians in the democracies failed to confront Hitler and his allies. Kellner was also angry at the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, and the car manufacturer Henry Ford, and at others who blindly expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler. “The whole world let themselves be fooled by this man,” Kellner wrote on May 3, 1942.
Friedrich Kellner expected America and England to come to the rescue. On June 25, 1941, he wrote:
When will this insanity be brought to an end? When will the intoxication of victory turn into a terrible hangover? Now is a unique chance for England and America to take the initiative, but not only with empty promises and insufficient measures. If America had the will to throw its entire might into the fray, it could tip the balance for a return of peace. Only a tremendous force and the commitment of all war material can bring the German wild steer to reason. Up until now the statesmen–through unbelievable shortsightedness–have neglected or failed their duty. Mankind awake! Attack together with all your might against the destroyers of peace! No reflections, no resolutions, no speeches, no neutrality. Advance against the enemy of mankind!
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Friedrich Kellner wrote the diary to expose the crimes of the Third Reich. He believed his diary could serve as a warning for future generations to oppose dictatorships and their totalitarian ideology.
After the war, Friedrich Kellner helped to reestablish the Social Democratic Party. He became chairman of the Laubach branch. He retired from politics in 1960, at the age of seventy-five.
In 1968, he gave his diary to his American grandson, Professor Robert Scott Kellner , to take to America for safekeeping. He told him:
The day will come when the same kind of anti-democratic and anti-Semitic hatred will bring intense misery to the world. Use the diary as a weapon against dictatorships and terrorism. There will always be people of bad will, therefore people of good will must be prepared to oppose them.
My Opposition: The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner
My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner is a 2007 documentary movie by Abella Entertainment Ltd. of Toronto, Canada. It is produced and directed by Fern Levitt and Arnie Zipursky. Leonard Asper is an executive producer. The movie is distributed by CCI Entertainment.
The documentary tells the story of Chief Justice Inspector Friedrich Kellner ( ) who wrote a secret diary during World War II. The diary records the crimes of the Nazis. The movie uses interviews, historical footage, and re-enactments of events to tell how Friedrich Kellner risked his life to write the diary. The story is also about Kellner’s American grandson, Robert Scott Kellner, who was abandoned as a child but later found his grandfather in Germany. Part of the movie is about the grandson’s attempt to bring the Friedrich Kellner diary to the attention of the public.
The movie begins with Friedrich Kellner as a political activist for the Social Democratic Party of Germany before the war. He campaigns against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. The re-enactments show Kellner trying to stop the riots against the Jews during Kristallnacht. Kellner is brought before a tribunal, and he is threatened with imprisonment in a concentration camp. The movie shows Kellner’s active and passive resistance against the Third Reich. One scene shows him distributing leaflets that had been dropped from American planes. When World War II comes to an end, Kellner helps to restore the SPD. He becomes the chairman of the party in his region. Interwoven in the story about Friedrich Kellner is the story of his grandson.
The documentary was filmed on location in Mainz and in Laubach, Germany, and in Texas.
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