Friedrich Kellner August Friedrich Kellner ( February 1 , 1885 – November 4 , 1970 ) was a mid - level official in Germany who worked as a justice inspector in Mainz and Laubach . During the First World War , Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment . After the war he became a political organizer for the Social Democratic Party of Germany , which was the leading political party during the time of the turbulent and short - lived Weimar Republic , Germany ’ s first period of democracy . Kellner campaigned against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis . During World War II , working as a civil servant at a small court house , he wrote a diary to record his observations of the Nazi regime . Based on conversations and attentive reading of newspapers , he described the various crimes of that regime . He titled his work " Mein Widerstand , " meaning " My Opposition " . After the war Kellner served on denazification boards , and he also helped to reestablish the Social Democratic Party . He gave his diary to his American grandson in 1968 to translate into English and to bring it to the attention of the public . In the epilogue , the author ' s grandson Robert Scott Kellner tells how the diary came to be published in German : - German publishers were not interested until in 2005 it was reported in Der Spiegel that former US President George H . W . Bush had looked at Kellner ' s original notebooks in the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A & M University . He explained his purpose for writing the diary : The diary was published in 2011 . Biography . Family and education . Kellner was born in Vaihingen an der Enz , a town on the Enz River in southern Germany . At the time of his birth , Vaihingen was part of the Kingdom of Württemberg in the German Empire . Kellner was the only child of Georg Friedrich Kellner , a baker and confectioner from the town of Arnstadt in Thuringia , and Barbara Wilhelmine Vaigle from Bietigheim - Bissingen near Ludwigsburg . The Kellner family could trace its beginnings to when the Protestant reformer , Martin Luther , lived and preached not far from Arnstadt . The Kellners were Evangelical Lutherans . When Friedrich Kellner was four years old , his family moved to Mainz where his father became the master baker at Goebel ' s Confectionery ( " Goebels Zuckerwerk " ) . After completing Volksschule , primary school , Kellner had a nine year course of non - classical study in the Oberrealschule in Mainz . In 1902 he completed his final exams at Goetheschule , which qualified him for an apprenticeship in courthouse administration . In 1903 he started work as a junior clerk in the Mainz courthouse , remaining there until 1933 . He advanced in the administrative ranks to justice secretary , then to court accountant , and in April 1920 to justice inspector . Military service and marriage . From September 1907 through October 1908 Kellner fulfilled his initial military reserve duty in the 6th Infantry Company of the Leibregiments Großherzogin ( 3 . Großherzoglich Hessisches ) Nr . 117 in Mainz . In 1911 , he completed an additional two months reserve training . When the First World War began in 1914 , Kellner was called up for active duty as a sergeant and deputy - officer in the Prinz Carl Infantry Regiment ( 4 . Großherzoglich Hessisches Regiment ) Nr . 118 , in Worms ] ] . [ [ File : Friedrich Kellner WWI BeerStein 1907 - 1908 . jpg | thumb | left | 60px | 1908 beerstein Within the first month of his return to army service , Kellner was in eight engagements in Belgium and France , including fights at Neufchâteau , Revigny - Laimont , and Rinarville , associated with what has become known as the [ [ Battle of the Frontiers ] ] . His regiment also fought at the [ [ First Battle of the Marne ] ] from September 5 through September 12 . Under a prolonged bombardment in the trenches near Reims , he was wounded and was sent to [ [ Roch | St . Rochus ] ] Hospital in Mainz to recover . He spent the remainder of the war as a quartermaster secretary for the [ [ List of German corps in World War II | 13th Army Corps ] ] in Frankfurt am Main . In 1913 , a few months prior to being called up for service in the war , Kellner married Pauline Preuss ( January 19 , 1888 - February 8 , 1970 ) , who was from Mainz . Their son , Karl Friedrich Wilhelm ( a . k . a . Fred William ) , who was to be their only child , was born in Mainz on February 29 , 1916 . Political activism . [ [ File : Friedrich Kellner 1923 . jpg | thumb | left | 160px | Inspector Kellner , 1923 . ] ] Kellner welcomed the birth of German democracy after the war . In 1919 he became a political organizer for the Mainz branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , the ( SPD ) . Throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s , he spoke out against the danger posed to the fragile democracy by the extremists in the and the [ [ Nazi Party ] ] . At rallies near the Gutenberg Museum , which honored [ [ Johannes Gutenberg ] ] , the founder of the printing press , Kellner would hold above his head [ [ Adolf Hitler ] ] ’ s book , " Mein Kampf " , and yell out to the crowd : " Gutenberg , your printing press has been violated by this evil book . " He would often be accosted by brown - shirted thugs from the Nazi Party , known as Storm Troopers . Two weeks before Adolf Hitler was sworn in as [ [ Chancellor of Germany ( German Reich ) | Chancellor ] ] in January 1933 , and before the beginning of Hitler ' s murderous purge of his political opponents , Kellner and his family moved to the village of [ [ Laubach ] ] in Hesse , where he worked as the chief justice inspector in the district court . In 1935 his son immigrated to the [ [ United States ] ] in order to avoid service in the [ [ Wehrmacht ] ] , Hitler ’ s army . During the November pogrom of 1938 , known as [ [ Kristallnacht ] ] ( " Night of the Broken Glass " ) , Friedrich and Pauline Kellner tried to stop the rioting . When Kellner approached the presiding judge to bring charges against the leaders of the riot , Judge Schmitt instead opened an investigation into the Kellners ’ religious heritage . The Kellner family documents , which included baptismal records dating back three hundred years , proved Kellner and his wife were Christians . On November 18 , 1938 , the district judge in Darmstadt closed the case in Kellner ’ s favor : “ Doubts about the Kellner bloodlines cannot be validated . ” A finding to the contrary could have meant imprisonment and death . The war years . From his reading of " Mein Kampf " , Kellner believed the election of Adolf Hitler would mean another war in Europe , and events soon were to support his view . Within a few years after coming to power , Hitler abrogated the [ [ Treaty of Versailles ] ] , re - militarized the [ [ Remilitarization of the Rhineland | Rhineland ] ] , expanded the German military forces , and spent great sums to outfit those forces with modern weaponry . Although the leaders in the democracies were concerned about such rearmament , they failed to take action to stop it . On September 1 , 1939 , in coordination with the Soviet Union , Hitler ordered the German armed forces to invade Poland . [ [ File : Kellner diary - Apr 14 1943 radio crime . jpg | thumb | right | 170px | A page from the diary ] ] It was on this day that Friedrich Kellner began to record his observations in a secret diary that he entitled " Mein Widerstand " , " [ [ My Opposition ] ] " . He wanted the coming generations to know how easily young democracies could turn into dictatorships , and how people were too willing to believe propaganda rather than resist tyranny and terrorism . Kellner did not confine himself to the diary . He continued to express his views , and in February 1940 he was summoned to the district court in Giessen where he was warned by the president of the court , Hermann Colnot , to moderate his views . A few months later he was summoned to the mayor ’ s office in Laubach where he was warned by the mayor and the local Nazi Party leader that he and his wife would be sent to a [ [ Nazi concentration camps | concentration camp ] ] if he continued to be a " bad influence " on the population of Laubach . A report written by the district Nazi leader , Hermann Engst , shows that authorities were planning to punish Kellner at the conclusion of the war . Throughout the first two years of the war , Kellner looked to America to provide support for England and France . Numerous entries in the diary reveal Kellner ’ s belief that Germany had no chance to win if America would put aside its neutrality and do more than just send supplies to England . When America entered the war in 1941 , the diary entries show Kellner ’ s impatience for the Allies to mount an effective invasion of the continent , and to bring the fight to the Germans on their own territory . When the [ [ invasion of Normandy ] ] took place on [ [ June 6 , 1944 ] ] , Kellner inscribed in large letters in the entry of that date : “ " Endlich ! " , ” meaning “ Finally ! ” Kellner rarely wrote about his personal situation . He wrote primarily about Nazi policies and propaganda , and about the war . He noted the injustices in the court system , and recorded the inhumane deeds and genocidal intentions of the Nazis . In all of this he considered the German people as accomplices before and after the fact : first voting Hitler into power , and then acquiescing in his abuse of that power . [ [ File : Kellner diary Oct 28 1941 Sutterlin German English . jpg | thumb | right | 320px | Part of the 28 October 1941 entry . [ [ Sütterlin ] ] script transcribed to modern German and translated into English ] ] One of the most important historical entries in the diary was written on October 28 , 1941 . Most Germans after the war would insist they knew nothing at all about the [ [ The Holocaust | state - sponsored genocide ] ] of the Jews , yet very early in the war Kellner recorded this in his diary , showing that word of atrocities reached the average citizens even in the small towns : After the war . The war came to an end for Kellner on March 29 , 1945 , when the Americans marched into Laubach . Only a few days earlier , beginning on March 23 , 1945 , in a series of coordinated events between the British and American forces , the Allies had [ [ Operation Plunder | crossed the Rhine River ] ] in their invasion of the German homeland . With the approval of the occupation forces , the new mayor of Laubach made Kellner deputy mayor . Kellner aided in the [ [ denazification ] ] process , which primarily meant removing former Nazis from positions of power in the region . Kellner helped to resurrect the Social Democratic Party in Laubach , and he became the regional party chairman . Kellner wrote only a few more entries in the diary . In one of the last entries , on May 8 , 1945 , the day Germany officially surrendered to the Allies , Kellner noted : [ [ File : Robert Scott Kellner in 1960 . jpg | thumb | right | 150px | Robert Scott Kellner , who translated the diary into English , in 1960 . ] ] Kellner served as chief justice inspector and administrator of the Laubach courthouse until 1948 . He was appointed district auditor in the regional court in Giessen until his retirement in 1950 . For the next three years he was a legal advisor in Laubach . In 1956 he returned to politics and was Laubach ’ s leading councilor and deputy mayor until he retired in 1960 at age 75 . On July 19 , 1966 , Kellner received compensation from the Federal Republic of Germany because of the injustices committed against him during the time of National Socialism . The compensation ruling included this statement : Kellner and his wife arranged to have their son , Fred William Kellner , sent to the United States in 1935 out of concern he might otherwise have to fight for Hitler . Fred William returned to Germany in 1945 as a member of the U . S . Army . He was unable to cope with the devastation he witnessed , and in 1953 he took his own life . He is buried in the American Legion Tomb in Neuilly , France , on the outskirts of Paris . Fred ’ s son , Robert Scott Kellner , grew up in a children ' s home in Connecticut . In 1960 , while in the [ [ United States Navy ] ] and traveling through Germany , Robert Scott Kellner located his grandparents , Friedrich and Pauline Kellner , and learned of the existence of the diary . In 1968 Friedrich Kellner gave his diary to his American grandson to translate and bring to the attention of the public . [ [ File : Friedrich Kellner gravestone plaque in Mainz . jpg | thumb | left | 135px | Kellner grave , Mainz ] ] He believed his observations during World War II could have meaning in the increasing hostilities in the world brought about by the [ [ Cold War ] ] with Communism , and the proliferation of [ [ neo - Nazi ] ] cults . Decades later , Robert Scott Kellner would use the diary to combat the resurgence of fascism and anti - Semitism in the twenty - first century , and to counter historical revisionists who would deny the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities . He offered a copy of the diary to the Iranian president , [ [ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ] ] , who has referred to the [ [ Holocaust ] ] as " a myth " and has called for Israel to be " wiped off the map . " In his offer to Ahmadinejad , Kellner said : " We need to renounce ideologies that do not uphold , above all else , human life and personal liberty . " Friedrich and Pauline Kellner spent their last few years in Mainz , where Kellner had first begun his service as a law administrator and a political activist . He served as a volunteer legal advisor in Mainz from 1962 until 1969 . After Pauline ' s death on February 8 , 1970 , Friedrich returned to Laubach for the remaining few months of his life . He died on November 4 , 1970 , in the regional hospital in [ [ Lich , Hesse | Lich ] ] , not far from Laubach . He was buried at the side of his wife in the Main Cemetery , " Hauptfriedhof , " in Mainz . Works . Diary . [ [ File : The Friedrich Kellner Diary . jpg | thumb | right | 380px | Volumes of the Friedrich Kellner Diary . ] ] " [ [ My Opposition ] ] " consists of 10 volumes with a total of 861 pages . The volumes are sheets of accounting paper bound together by string . There are 676 individually dated entries beginning in September 1939 through May 1945 . More than 500 newspaper clippings are pasted onto the pages of the diary . The diary is written in a script called [ [ Sütterlin ] ] , the old German handwriting which was banned in 1941 and replaced by modern Latin lettering to make German easier for the conquered nations of Europe to read and understand . There are separate pages written in 1938 and 1939 , considered preliminary pages to the diary , that explain Kellner ’ s intentions . He meant for his observations to detail the events of those years , and to offer a prescription for future generations to prevent what occurred in Germany during Adolf Hitler ’ s rise to power , when a fledgling democracy willingly embraced dictatorship to solve political disputes . Kellner foresaw Germany ’ s defeat , and warned against a recurrence of totalitarianism . He prescribed unrelenting resistance against any ideology that threatened personal liberty and ignored the sanctity of human life . The complete diary was published by Wallstein Verlag ( [ [ : de : Wallstein Verlag | on German Wikipedia ] ] ) in Göttingen , Germany , in 2011 . It consists of two volumes , approximately 1 , 200 pages , with over 70 illustrations and photographs . The title is " Friedrich Kellner , ' Vernebelt , verdunkelt sind alle Hirne , ' Tagebücher 1939 - 1945 . " Reception of the diary . The diary ’ s first public appearance was at the [ [ George Bush Presidential Library and Museum ] ] , where it was on display to commemorate the 60th anniversary of [ [ VE Day ] ] , the end of the war in Europe . It has since been exhibited in other museums in the United States and in Germany . In October 2007 , an exhibit of diary facsimiles was at [ [ Stockholm Synagogue | The Great Synagogue of Stockholm ] ] , in Stockholm , Sweden . In 2010 , the original diary was displayed in an extensive exhibit at [ [ Friedrich - Ebert - Stiftung | Friedrich Ebert Stiftung ] ] in Berlin and Bonn , Germany . A permanent Kellner exhibit is at the Heimatmuseum in Laubach , Germany . Coincidentally , this museum is located on the same street as the courthouse where Kellner wrote the diary . In Giessen , where Kellner worked as district auditor from 1948 to 1950 , the Holocaust Literature Research Unit of the Justus Liebig [ [ University of Giessen ] ] has established the Kellner Project . The deputy director of the group , Dr . Sascha Feuchert , considers Kellner ' s work one of the most extensive diaries of the Nazi period . A number of major universities in the United States , such as Purdue , Columbia , and Stanford , have offered to make the diary part of their libraries . The directors of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem and the [ [ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ] ] in [ [ Washington , D . C . ] ] , have also requested the diary for their archives . In 2007 CCI Entertainment , a Canadian film company , produced a documentary film entitled " [ [ My Opposition : The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner ] ] , " which interweaves the stories of Kellner and his American grandson . The documentary had its American premiere at the George Bush Presidential Library on September 26 , 2007 . It was shown in the theater of the [ [ Dag Hammarskjöld Library ] ] at the United Nations on November 10 , 2008 , to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht . External links . [ [ Category : 1885 births ] ] [ [ Category : 1970 deaths ] ] [ [ Category : People from Vaihingen an der Enz ] ] [ [ Category : German Protestants ] ] [ [ Category : Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians ] ] [ [ Category : People from the Kingdom of Württemberg ] ] [ [ Category : German military personnel of World War I ] ] [ [ Category : German historians ] ] [ [ Category : German Resistance members ] ] [ [ Category : German Protestants opposed to the Third Reich ] ] [ [ Category : German diarists ] ] [ [ Category : Anti - fascists ] ]