Friedrich Kellner
In November 1938 there was a pogrom (an attack) against the Jews. This became known as Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass. Friedrich and Pauline Kellner tried to help their Jewish neighbors. The Kellners were warned by the Nazi leaders that they would suffer the same fate as their neighbors if they continued their resistance. Kellner was told he and his wife would be sent to a concentration camp if he continued to be a "bad influence" on the people of Laubach. A report written by the district Nazi leader, Hermann Engst, shows that authorities were planning to punish Kellner at the end of the war. Because he could not continue to speak out openly, Kellner wrote down his thoughts in a secret diary. He wanted his son, and the coming generations, to know that democracy must not give in to dictatorships. In the diary, he warns everyone to resist tyrants and terrorism, and to not believe in their propaganda.