Dresden IV; Lithograph over Monoprint, 70 x 100 cms, Unique, 2013.

When Conrad Felixmuller (self-portrait on the right) painted my grandmother Sofie (top left) and drew my mother in late 1932, the signs of what were to come were evident. Dresden was an early adopter of National Socialism. In 1932, the local Nazi newspaper ‘Die Freiheitskampf’ had the highest circulation of any paper in the city, even before the city elections of November 1932 gave the National Socialists a small majority in the popular vote. Unemployment in Saxony was the highest in Germany and the disaffected, unemployed, and bankrupt, as well as the cautious middle classes, turned to the Nazis as a bulwark against the Communists.

Perhaps the most detailed account of life in Germany, and specifically Dresden, from 1933 onwards is in the diaries of Victor Klemperer. A Professor of Romance Languages at the University of Dresden, Klemperer was a Jew married to an Aryan. In his writing, Klemperer demonstrates the importance of an almost daily record.  He aspired to "become a writer of contemporary cultural history." The diaries covering 1933 to 1945 bring together detailed observation, linguistic mastership, and an educated and knowledgeable scepticism. These chronicles, with their mix of political acuity, domestic minutiae, and unflinching self-reflection, have become a standard source for historians of this period.

So, as Lore, aged 17 was about to take her school leaving certificate, this was Klemperer’s’ diary entry for Friday 10th March:

30th January: Hitler Chancellor. What, up to election Sunday on 5th March I called terror was a mild prelude. Now the business of 1918 is being exactly repeated, only under a different sign, under the swastika. Again, it’s astounding how easily everything collapses.

The new Reich Governor Martin Mutschmann, appointed shortly after this, was assiduous in following orders. What followed in the city after his installation made some prescient citizens leave immediately, whilst others, like Klemperer and no doubt the Isakowitz family, simply looked on in horror. The Nazis in Dresden took an early lead on book burning in March 1933, with a large bonfire opposite the Dresden Royal Conservatory of Music.

The exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’ curated by Richard Muller the director of the Dresden Art Academy, opened in the inner courtyard of the City Hall Dresden on 23rd September 1933. It included more than 40 works by Felixmuller, as well as work by all the great artist of ‘German Expressionism’. At the same time, the renowned non-Jewish conductor Fritz Busch was removed from his post as Director at the Dresden State Opera, for supporting Jewish Musicians. The dismissal itself was demeaning: Nazis in the front rows shouted "Out with Busch" at the beginning of a performance of Rigoletto, leading to his immediate replacement.