BY JUSTIN HOPPER
In observance of Yom HaShoah on Thursday, May 2, the Shelter Rock Jewish Center in Roslyn has invited author Dr. Robert Scott Kellner to present a unique account of Nazi Germany as told through his grandfather’s secret diary, recorded from 1939 to 1945. As a mid-level German officer, Friedrich Kellner risked his life to record the Third Reich’s path to genocide, the involvement of ordinary citizens, and his own revulsion. In 1968, Kellner gave his diary to his American grandson to translate and bring to the attention of the public.
At the presentation’s conclusion, there will be a service and memorial candle-lighting led by Rabbi Martin S. Cohen. Kellner, a retired English professor who taught at Texas A&M University, translated and edited the diary from its original German format, to publish My Opposition: The Diary of Friedrich Kellner, A German Against the Third Reich. It tells the story of his Lutheran grandfather, who had first campaigned as a social democrat against Adolf Hitler during the time of the Weimar Republic. Shelter Rock Jewish Center is at 272 Shelter Rock Rd. For further information, call 516-741-4305, ext. 10.
