- Paperback: 311 pages
- Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New edition (6 April 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1844081125
- ISBN-13: 978-1844081127
- Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 2.4 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
62,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > History > Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts > 20th Century
- #15 in Books > History > Military History > World War II > Battle for Berlin
- #20 in Books > Biography > Essays, Journals & Letters > 20th Century
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Product Description
Review
'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
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
108 of 110 people found the following review helpful
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.
57 of 58 people found the following review helpful
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.
50 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a compellingly brutal account of a woman's fight for survival after Berlin falls to the Soviet army in the spring of 1945 and the immediate weeks of occupation. It is no secret that there were mass rapes of practically any available German female but what is surprising is just how widespread this was. The author not surprisingly has remained anonymous and the book takes the form of a diairy. What becomes immediately apparent to the reader is that the author has an amazing eye for detail and seems to be able to chronicle truly horrific events in a very objective, almost journalistic style. To the author's credit, she manages to emerge psychologically unscathed and even manages to inject humour into the darkest and most terrifying ordeals. You will be left feeling amazed at the strength of the human spirit and how even in the worst possible circumstances - hope exists.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Compulsory read!
A brilliant book. Should be compulsory reading for all, especially men. The historical information on 2 months in 1945 when the lives of women in a Berlin under the occupation of... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Singleton
A woman in Berlin
I bought this book to read as my mother a young girl of 16 and Grandmother were both in Berlin at this time .
Unfortunately my Grandmother died there of malnutriton. Read more
Unfortunately my Grandmother died there of malnutriton. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Aphrodite
Enigma
I found it difficult to accept that the person who wrote this book remained anonymous. However, one has to remember the effect of the war on the German population. Read more
Published 7 months ago by ellen
"Losing two world wars hits damned deep."
For a long time this manuscript languished unread, disappearing from view before slowly re-emerging from obscurity, whereupon it became an international phenomenon. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Eileen Shaw
Men start wars, the women pay!
This book should be read by every person interested in World War II or in wars for that matter. It should be read by every young person glorifying war, by every person that has... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Luthien Arnatuile
Not quite what I expected
I too came across this book after first reading it referenced in Antony Beevor's "Berlin". It surprised me. I was expecting something quite teary and relentlessly brutal. Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Frederick Helmersley-Bott
enlightening
Its hard to say that I enjoyed this book as it is a very sad true story. I like to read about real people and I love history so it was good to read someones experiences, it made... Read more
Published on 4 April 2010 by Mrs. M. Clough
A struggle in the face of adversity
A very moving account which is thought provoking and also shows that despite living through the most awful atrocities you can come through the other end. Read more
Published on 24 Jun 2009 by Campbell79
Struggling for survival
This personal diary covers a two month period in the life of a young German woman. She writes of her life in Berlin from April to June 1945 when Berliners came to realise what war... Read more
Published on 22 May 2009 by LindyLouMac
Powerful and frightening true diary.
You can't help but be moved by this diary - written by a professional woman in the last days of the Second World War and beyond as Germany sinks to defeat and Berlin is iver-run by... Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2008 by uncle barbar
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