Between April 20th and June 22nd of 1945 the anonymous author of A Woman in Berlin wrote about life within the falling city as it was sacked by the Russian Army. Fending off the boredom and deprivation of hiding, the author records her experiences, observations and meditations in this stark and vivid diary. Accounts of the bombing, the rapes, the rationing of food and the overwhelming terror of death are rendered in the dispassionate, though determinedly optimistic prose of a woman fighting for survival amidst the horror and inhumanity of war. This diary was first published in America in 1954 in an English translation and in Britain in 1955. A German language edition was published five years later in Geneva and was met with tremendous controversy. In 2003, over forty years later, it was republished in Germany to critical acclaim - and more controversy. This diary has been unavailable since the 1960s and is now newly translated into English. A Woman in Berlin is an astonishing and deeply affecting account.
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'it's not a book, it's a poem, an epic poem... Exemplary' - Jameela Saddiqi 'a most extraordinary war journal' - Susan Jeffreys 'this is not an hysterical woman... you simply cannot dismiss it... profoundly, acutely embarrassing... an insight into the resilience of people in an unknowable situation' - Robert Sandhill 'one of the most powerful books I've ever read...the best money you'll ever spend' - Kate Mosse 'This book, which could have been horrifying, is instead exhilarating: a rare tribute to the human spirit' Nina Bawden, Daily Mail 'A war diary unlike any other... her account is characterised by its courage, its stunning intellectual honesty and by its uncommon powers of observation and perception' Antony Beevor 'One of the most powerful books I've ever read' Kate Mosse 'One of the essential books for understanding war and life' A.S. Byatt
Book Description
* A startling account of a German survivor of the Second World War. 'One of the most important personal accounts ever written about the effects of war and defeat' Antony Beevor 'One of the most extraordinary and moving books I have ever read' Antonia Fraser
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
121 of 124 people found the following review helpful
By millie1512
Format:Paperback
This is the diary of a woman in Berlin from May 1945, when the Russians took over, to July when some form of normality returned and the Allies carved up the city between them. The author remains anonymous though we do know she works in publishing, which gives her a good eye for detail, and that she's intelligent and cultured, speaking some Russian and French, which she is able to use in the days to come.
At the start she chronicles the mass rapes that she and a large proportion of women in Berlin suffered, after which point the book moves on to her daily quest for survival. In her case that included `befriending' various Russian officers for protection. It also details how ordinary Berliners coped in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Nazis and shows how the circumstances brought out the best and the worst in people.
The recent airing of accounts such as this, and Anthony Beevor's 'Berlin, The Downfall', has caused a certain amount of controversy in Germany and in Russia.
Are we somehow letting the Germans off the hook by making a parallel between what happened to them and what they did in the Second World War?
I don't think a diary such as this does anything of the sort. In their own way, the women such as the anonymous author of this book, were the final victims of Naziism, falling victim to Russian soldiers who were brutalised after four years of war.
On a human level it's impossible not to be shocked and horrified about what this woman went through and experienced; and to be amazed at how she dealt with the ordeal and recovered psychologically from it. And it's worth remembering that though this happened sixty years ago, rape is still used in war today - you only need to look at both Bosnia and the Congo for two contemporary examples.
This is an exceptionally powerful first hand account of how people can both lose and retain their humanity. It is one of those books that stays with you for days. Truly one of the most remarkable things I've ever read.
At the start she chronicles the mass rapes that she and a large proportion of women in Berlin suffered, after which point the book moves on to her daily quest for survival. In her case that included `befriending' various Russian officers for protection. It also details how ordinary Berliners coped in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Nazis and shows how the circumstances brought out the best and the worst in people.
The recent airing of accounts such as this, and Anthony Beevor's 'Berlin, The Downfall', has caused a certain amount of controversy in Germany and in Russia.
Are we somehow letting the Germans off the hook by making a parallel between what happened to them and what they did in the Second World War?
I don't think a diary such as this does anything of the sort. In their own way, the women such as the anonymous author of this book, were the final victims of Naziism, falling victim to Russian soldiers who were brutalised after four years of war.
On a human level it's impossible not to be shocked and horrified about what this woman went through and experienced; and to be amazed at how she dealt with the ordeal and recovered psychologically from it. And it's worth remembering that though this happened sixty years ago, rape is still used in war today - you only need to look at both Bosnia and the Congo for two contemporary examples.
This is an exceptionally powerful first hand account of how people can both lose and retain their humanity. It is one of those books that stays with you for days. Truly one of the most remarkable things I've ever read.
63 of 65 people found the following review helpful
By Lala B
Format:Paperback
An incredible diary of a young woman's existence in Berlin during the Russian occupation. She writes in such a moving and simple way...and without bitternes.She writes about the struggle the Berliners endured day to day: of their starvation, their constant battle for survival, how they filled their days all the while being in fear of their lives, placating and 'befriending' the Russian soldiers, surviving, being raped daily and the spiderfine thread with which they clung to life.......there is a heart stopping moment when she describes the soldiers' fixation on a young child.....if you read anything this year let it be this book. It is so hard to imagine this only happened 60 years ago..it is truly horrific and absorbing.
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the reissue of a real life diary kept by an anonymous diarist living in Berlin in April/May of 1945, when Berlin was taken by the Russians and Hitler and company were tucked in their bunker for the last remaining days. It is a tale, first hand, of the ordinary Germans trying to fight for life in the falling Berlin as they slowly realise they have been abandoned, lied to, misled, and used by their 'leader'. The diarist recounts the horrifc scenes around her as well as the 'fashion' of rapes perpetrated by the Russians on the German women and girls, encouraged by Stalin as the 'spoils of war'. Although there is a danger that the diary entries may be overwhelmed with emotion, the diarist remains very level headed and recounts detail precisely, which makes this more than just the average memoir - it is an important social document. She even manages to get the reader to feel sympathy for some of the Russian soldiers, especially the ones she befriends to ensure safety and food for herself and others.
The main thing I was impressed by was that the tales of rape never are told for titillation, actual graphic details are not relayed. This is not a book for sensation, and the diarist, thought to be a journalist by occupation, is recording this period as history, so that we might know more of what happened during those final days. It's a fascinating record and one that is of great importance, but because it is not an academic book, or the work of an historian, it manages to engage like a novel and speaks directly to 'normal' people.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Why hide the original manuscript?
I have just started to read this book. However, I would like to know why the holder of the original diary - written in pencil in two exercise books and one notebook - is... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Bert Sands
4.0 out of 5 stars
A glimpse into the recent past
I can well believe that this book is authentic. It paints a twentieth century picture of similar events which reoccur throughout human history. Read more
Published 25 days ago by W M Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping Read
This is a book of the unfortunate ordinary people, from both sides of the World War and the consequences to all of them.
Published 1 month ago by K. L. Macdonald
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book
but then I have good reason to say that... before I was born, my Dad rescued the person who was to become my mum from Soviet troops in Berlin. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ian
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Woman In Berlin
Good document, if questionable, for historians. The mind is left struggling to fill in missing detail.
Translation needs reviewing. Recommended.
Translation needs reviewing. Recommended.
Published 1 month ago by B. Vaughan
4.0 out of 5 stars
A unique and historic account of war
I decided to read this book as it was reviewed on a Radio 4 programme. It was written from a woman prospectus in the final days of WW11 in Germany when the Russian Army took over... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Ann Nichol
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary eye-witness account of the Russian 'liberation' of...
One woman's diary of the last few days of WW2 in Berlin. She describes in detail air-raids, hunger, a complete collapse of civic society, street-to-street fighting between Germans... Read more
Published 1 month ago by SEAPWilliams
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unexpected find and a harrowing read.
A tough and thought provoking read dealing with a two month period from April to June 1945. Set in Berlin, it tells the stark and depressing story of how women were treated by... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kath Avery
5.0 out of 5 stars
This's what war can do.
This true story, of this lady lead's me to wonder what ,(If i were a woman), I'd do in the same cicumstances that she and thousands of others probably did. Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. M. Williamson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it
Just wish she had kept the diary for longer, love to know how the next year went living in east Berlin
Published 1 month ago by Josephine Smith
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