- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Corgi; New edition edition (16 Sep 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552990655
- ISBN-13: 978-0552990653
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.9 x 19.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
77,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #67 in Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Germany
- #89 in Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Germany
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 Including both The Past is Myself and its sequel, The Road Ahead, the Omnibus edition also features newly-discovered additional text. |
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Christabel Bielenberg, a niece of Lord Northcliffe, married a German lawyer in 1934. She lived through the war in Germany, as a German citizen, under the horrors of Nazi rule and Allied bombings. Closely associated with resistance circles, her husband was arrested after the failure of the plot against Hitler's life on 20th July 1944, and she herself was interrogated by the Gestapo. Not only do we meet her friends whose tragic bravery shines from the book, but dozens of everyday Germans, from the simple-minded Nazi official who was also her odd-job gardener, to the good-hearted Black Forest villagers who sheltered her till the liberation. They are presented with humour and sympathy, allowing the reader a remarkable insight into their character. All the more haunting, then, is her night-time encounter with an SS man from Riga who searches desperately for death on the battlefield. The human dimension of her writing brings about an unforgettable portrait of an evil time.
About the Author
Christabel Bielenberg, a niece of Lord Northcliffe, married a German lawyer in 1934. She lived through the war as a German citizen and wrote about her experiences in her memoir, The Past is Myself, and in its sequel, The Road Ahead. The Past is Myself was adapted for television by Dennis Potter under the title Christabel. In 1988, the Federal Republic of Germany awarded her the Commander's cross of the Order of Merit for her contribution to German-English understanding. She and her husband, Peter, have three sons and live in Ireland.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Christabel Bielenberg's account of her life in Germany from the time of Hitler's extraordinary rise to power and influence to his ultimate downfall makes compelling reading. Born to a wealthy and politically influential Irish/English family Bielenberg marries and commits herself to her husband's country - Germany - five years before the outbreak of World War II. She finds herself caught up in the horrors of Nazi Germany, sustained by her husband's group of friends who, refusing to believe that Hitler speaks for all Germans, work secretly throughout the war to keep alive channels of communication with England. Involved in the July 20th plot of 1944 to assassinate Hitler, Bielenberg's husband is imprisoned, all but sharing the fate of his co- conspirators. The account of his rescue is thrilling reading, but the overall theme of the book is that no nation has a monopoly on good or evil, that humanity and inhumanity co-exist in every race, and that goodness can be found in the most unlikely places. One of my all-time favourite books.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio Cassette
A brilliant thought provoking book of an Englishwomans struggle to survive in Nazi Germany with a husband and young children. Through the course of the book we follow her path from an educated priviledged background in England, her acceptance into German academic society - she lives through the traumas of seeing her family doctor dissappearing most probably to a concentration camp, her husband's closest friend executed for treason and her husband's eventual imprisonment in a concentration camp.
Throughout her time in Nazi Germany she maintains her "Englishness" whilst gaining acceptance as a German Housewife - leading to her house arrest in a rural part of Germany (during the time her husband was imprisoned) and then towards the end of the war her trip to see the SS to convince them of her husband's innocence.
Overall the book is well written and has a gripping story line - difficult to put down.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an absolutely wonderful book describing the life of a young English woman living in Germany, mainly Berlin, during the war. Our view of WW2 is coloured by all the propaganda we have read. This book shows that people are just people, at least when they are out of uniform. She lived the same life as any other resident of Germany with all its restrictions and dangers during the war, but no more than everyone else. Hardly the usual view of Hitler's Germany. I have read it twice and am now ordering a copy for a friend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A very interesting account of every day life in the Third Reich
I found this book very interesting, as it describes the every day life in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 as seen by a housewife and a mother of little children - which is a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Maciej
I couldn't put it down.
I couldn't put it down. One of the best reads of my life. Very moving and illuminating. At times funny. It restored my faith in human nature.
Published 7 months ago by bookworm
An excellent account of life in the Third Reich
This is an excellent and unique account of life in the Third Reich from the perspective of a British born woman, married to a German.
Well written and compelling reading. Read more
Well written and compelling reading. Read more
Published 11 months ago by mido5162
Powerful autobiography
This powerful and moving story of the life of Chris (an English woman) and her family in wartime Germany is gentle, honest and compelling. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2009 by Village Reader
Shared memories of an earlier Europe - or one to come
Having lived and worked in Germany from 1968 to 1993 my father gave me this book with the note that "I wish that everyone you know in Germany could read this". Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2009 by Mr. R. A. Flood
Life in Germany during WWII
An interesting view of the home front in Germany written by the wife of a German. Elegiac, fascinating, humourous and brilliantly written it gives a great piacture of those on the... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2009 by Mrs. Jane C. Kirk
A good book, but not amazing or compelling
This is a good book, but is not amazing or compelling as some of the other reviewers state. Christabel Bielenberg certainly has an interesting story to tell but I feel that the... Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2008 by R. A. Hooker
A Time Witness
Spellbinding personal testimony of Christabel of her years in Germany under the Hitler regime. I have found echos of stories from my own family's experience in her book. Read more
Published on 16 May 2008 by Stratonautus
Utterly compelling
Memoirs of life inside the wartime Third Reich from an outside perspective are understandably thin on the ground. Christabel Bielenberg's book is precious just for this fact alone. Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2008 by Mr. Richard N. Walker
A haunting book
I bought it by chance from an airport bookshop on my way to Sweden, and then could not put it down. When I'd finished it once I read it again, and every few years I come back to... Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2007 by android
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