Eight Weeks in the Conquered City - A Woman in Berlin

This is a fascinating story about what it is like to be a civilian in the midst of war. The narrative is clear and candid without being so gruesome or grisly as to turn the reader away. It helps those of us who have never been through such a situation appreciate how fortunate we are and provides excellent insight into the situation of those who are trapped in war-torn parts of the world today.

This book is a very important part of womens herstory about the "rape and pillaging" of war. For too long the rape part has been silenced because of women's shame and misogyny. Too bad the woman writing the book felt she had to submit it anonymously.
Very well written.

It has been debated whether this account is true or fiction. Regardless of whether this woman's account is real, one cannot deny that in a lawless society, the victors will collect their bounty -- human or material.

This book is about the human will to survive and adapt, against all odds. War has no victors--only survivors. This woman's incredible will to persevere and help all others was a result of her ability to move away from her circumstances, and write and observe from the outside looking in.

In the narrator's consciousness, suddenly the war has new meaning as the Russians collect their "bounty" and reward themselves for their suffering at the hands of the Germans. Suddenly it is evident that the German soldiers were no angels when similar victories were exploited by them at the expense of the Russians.

A worthwhile read for anyone interested in the history of World War II.

It's a candid honest acount for what happened during the war. It's way ahead of it's time when it's first published. Everyone should read this book before he or she whole hearted supporting any war.

Anyone who had any doubts about the sheer baseness of the USSR need only pick up this book.
A peasant army goaded on to rape by their monstrous Stalin (himself a rapist) are let loose in what remained of civilised Europe.
This book is not the unremitting horror I feared it would be but a story of fortitude, survival and the transendence of intelligence over brutality and barbarism.
The author becomes the sole voice of reason and civility in a world gone mad.
One wishes that Churchill and Roosevelt had been made to read this to realise the criminality of their surrender of Europe to the evils of communism. Did we really go to war with Germany to sell Poland and the rest of the "Eastern" European countries into slavery? Some victory.

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If you have read any of my earlier posts, you will realize how much I thoroughly enjoy books about World War II. This, despite the subject matter, was no exception. However, I would like to start off by saying that this memoir was by no means an easy or enjoyable read.

A Woman in Berlin is an anonymous diary about a young German woman's daily life during the eight weeks when Berlin was being captured by the Russian army. I was immediately drawn to this book because it was originally published so quickly after the war and was not received well by the public. The author chose to stay anonymous because of the dark subject matter, but many people accused her of being a liar and inflating what had happened to the German women at the time. She let the book fall out of circulation and gave the directions to only ever republish it after she died.

As we now know, everything that the author outlined about that time during the end of the war was true, especially the barbaric and brutal rapes that occurred to a huge percentage of the population. They say war is hell and unfortunately, throughout history, the suffering doesn't end after the battle is won- women and children are often the 'prize' of the conquerors. The author shares what happens to the women in her building as well as herself in a comprehensible way that provides you with a picture of the terror that was felt. Many of the women felt that it was simply what they deserved, however, and took it as just another part of war.

I don't review this book as a way to gain sympathy for the German citizens who really weren't living too bad of a life during most of the war while other populations were starving, in concentration camps, or wiped out completely by the Nazi war machine. I read this book and am reviewing it as a way to bring awareness to all sides of war- rape, murder, pillage, and destruction. The author did not write this has a way to gain sympathy either, in fact, quite the contrary. She wrote with such honesty and rawness while showing no bitterness or hatred, using her diary instead as a way to continue a sense of normalcy and routine despite all of the destruction and chaos happening around her.

Overall, I think this is definitely a book that is worth your attention. It is so completely opposite of most World War II memoirs or diaries and shows things from a different perspective. Days after finishing this book, I am still haunted by the passages that were written in such extraordinary detail and yet complete complacency at the same time. This diary is a testament to the resilience of humans depsite all of the horrific and incomprehensible things they go through. You can now find more information about the author and her story, but one thing is for sure; you won't be forgetting the woman from Berlin anytime soon.

You have probably heard the term "HERstory" as a counterpoint to "HIStory." And if you can get over the eye-roll this turn of phrase inspire, you will understand why it's important to read a book like "A Woman in Berlin."

The author is an anonymous woman, a citizen of Berlin, and she kept a journal during eight weeks close to the end of WWII. She starts in April, 1945, and ends in June, 1945. (Peace was officially declared in August, 1945.) She was a journalist before the war, giving her an excellent skill set including observational skills, drawing conclusions, and expressing fact above opinion.

She tells a horrible perspective - one that I never heard... One more horrifying perspective from WWII. The people of Berlin at the end of the war are primarily women - most of the men had gone to war. The women endured so much in the fallen city: first as their homes were bombed in air raids and they scrambled for a place to rest in crowded basements, fighting and scrambling for food, then countless rapes from Russian soldiers, and finally hoping for an opportunity to work long days just for the benefit of a regular schedule of food.

There are moments of break-downs, moments of rational clarity, and one moment near the end of the book where she turns on the radio and, hearing a news program, immediately clicks it off wishing that they would just declare "this chapter over already!" (I was definitely drawn to her use of sarcasm throughout the book.)

In the translators and editors notes, they mention that the book was first released a few years after the war. It was a huge failure because the wounds were too raw. Fifty years later, it was very successful. This book is an important and underrepresented voice of war. It is important for all of us to know.

As probably everybody nowadays knows, this diary describes the daily life of German civilians in Berlin during the last days of III Reich and the first days of Soviet occupation of German capital. It was written day after day by a German woman, who decided to stay anonymous, as her experiences during this time were terrible. Rape, hunger and different humiliations - such was the common lot of women in Berlin in those times. This testimony tells it all.

This is a very exceptional document, of great historical value. It is also very, very brilliantly written, which actually for a time caused some doubts about its authenticity (presently there is virtually no doubt that this is a real, genuine diary kept in those times). Horrible things are described in detail, but mostly in a matter-of-fact way. And one of the things which are the most shocking is the description how even the most abject situation tends to create a kind of social acceptance, with its own rituals, if it perdures.

This book is hardly judgemental - in fact the way author sees both the invaders ("our liberators") and her fellow Berliners is full of compassion, even when they display some very abject traits. The description of the way the most defenseless people (women delivered into the hands of invading hostile army which considers rape as normal behavior) take their life in their own hands and even manage to get even (well, a little) by secretly mocking their new "masters" makes for a very interesting read. There is also a surprising amount of humor in this book - which is probably what shocked so much the male readers of the first edition of "Woman in Berlin" in the 50s...

Last but not least, author describes also another category of victims - German men, who, after fighting six years with extreme energy and courage, were ultimately so completely defeated that those who survived had to watch, powerless, the winners defile repeatedly and almost casually their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters. Author desribes with a great respect one of the very few men who stood up (at the grave risk to his life) to a bunch of Soviet soldiers and not only managed to save his wife from being raped but was lucky enough to survive this confrontation (most of others who tried the same thing were not that fortunate).

But possibly the most shocking part of the book is the one, which begins after most of Soviet troops left Berlin. The rapes certainly ended at that moment and author was set free by the departure of Soviet officers who "owned" her. But her relief lasted only a short time... Those last chapters are indeed a very tough and surprising read...

This is not the kind of book which one enjoys reading - but it is certainly an extremely important testimony about an aspect of war which is seldom openly described, as it is too painful to remember - for both women and men. And it is also a very powerful warning to all those who would be tempted to start a war: if you really want to do this, you better be really, REALLY CERTAIN that you will not lose...

This book is the best nonfiction work I have read this year. It is subtitled, "Eight Weeks in the Conquered City--A Diary." It was written in German with this 2005 edition translated by Philip Boehm. Be sure to read the: Foreword; Introduction; and Translator's Note. This work about war has a unique perspective--that of a young (20's), intelligent (journalist) woman. Not that of a soldier or of a refugee, but that of a brave woman stuck in a large city (Berlin) at the end of WWII. The Germans were being defeated. The Russian forces rapidly approached to take over the city. The defenseless German women left behind had to fight to live--consumed with dreadful hunger and thirst, the destruction wrought by artillery and rifle fire, and the ominous realization of impending rape by the invading Russians (by best estimates, more than 100,000 German women were raped after the conquest of Berlin). The author kept a daily diary of her's and of her neighbors' experiences. She wrote with vivid and complete detail. How she survived makes for a riveting story. She decided to remain anonymous, even though she changed the names of those she wrote about, because she wrote critically of German men and of the behavior of her neighbors under stress.

I read this book during my college years, 1959-63, borrowing it from the college library. Throughout those more than 50 years, it has haunted me, the misery and horror of it. I had learned to despise the Third Reich but hadn't thought much about is surviving citizens. I never thought I'd pity a German. This book helped me to see that in the end of all wars, the women on the losing side pay the price, usually when bereft of the men whom the women cheered as the men marched off to glorious combat. There is no glory for the women, though, only the mental and physical horrors and tortures in the midst of the filth, squalor, pain, starvation, ruin, and desperation of defeat. Yet they who survived rose above their suffering to clear the debris and soldier onward.

I can't "love" this book; I can't bear to read it again. I can only say that it struck me to the heart and opened my eyes to the true costs of war. Like hell women don't fight wars! To fight to survive the horrors of loss is to fight the bitter end of any war.

In this disturbing autobiographical snapshot of life in conquered Berlin, there are three key themes which permeate the book:

1. The strength of the women. As the Russian invade Berlin, turning their world chaotic and completely disordered, the women grimly survive, using their wits, determination and gallows humor to endure.

2. How war creates a new normal. According to estimates, more than 100,000 women were raped in Berlin and 2 million or more in Germany alone. Rape thus becomes a normal topic of conversation, as in this extraordinary passage where the author visits an old friend. "Ilse and I hastily exchange the first sentences: 'How many times were you raped, Ilse?' 'Four, and you?' 'No idea, I had to work my way up the ranks from supply train to major.'" They then compare notes over tea and jam sandwiches.

3. The weakness of the men. There are few men around since anyone able to fight has been sent away. The men who remain are invariable weak, with little thought for anyone but themselves. Only once does the author hear about a man who drives away a Russian soldier trying to rape his wife. Even Ilse's husband hid in the closet and listened as the Russians repeatedly raped his wife. What also becomes clear is that men in general give little thought to how their actions will impact the women and children. So, for instance, German soldiers are told to not destroy liquor supplies when they are forced to retreat since it was assumed that the Russian's would drink the liquor and then not be able to fight as well. This has a devastating effect on the German women since the liquor goads Russian soldiers into an orgy of rape and pillaging.

The author presents her story in a dispassionate yet detailed way that is both horrifying and engrossing. We see into the depths of her anguish in passages such as when she debates with herself her motivations for surviving. "Love? Lies trampled on the ground. And were it ever to rise again, I would always be anxious, could never find true refuge, would never again dare hope for permanence."

This book should be required reading for all military personnel and decision makers. The book makes crystal clear that there is no such thing as a good war.

This eight week diary is written by an extremely intelligent woman who is using her wits to survive under terrible circumstances. I found her writing to be informative and detailed and full of insight. This is no easy task when living under constant threat of sexual violence from the Russian troops as well as the constant threat of hunger and disease for poor sanitation and crowded living conditions. The diary fully explores what happens to a conquered people when the invading armies enter the city. It is to the credit of the author that she shows how this was not just a personal tragedy but a collective tragedy as over 100,000 German women were raped by the Russian troops that occupied Berlin. It is not a moral choice but a survival tactic to attach to a high ranking Russian officer to avoid daily group rape. Knowing the history of World War II, and knowing the terrible actions of the Germans, this book will provide the reader with mixed emotions. One is left with the impression that we all our guilty, that we all can commit terrible acts given the correct social pressures and orders from authority. I found it hard to put the book down each evening to go to sleep since the author keeps the reader transfixed by her efforts to survive under terrible post-war conditions. I would certainly recommend the book highly. The author's exploration into the relationship between men and women under times of brutal suppression was fascinating and was so very true. A German man finds his wife has been gang raped while he was fighting the war. He kills her by shooting her in the back while she is washing dishes and then kills himself. This simple example gives you a flavor of the tensions and misery experienced by the vanquished Germans. This book honestly looks at the sexual aspects of war and how violence against women may be seen as the spoils of war for the winning troops. There is much here that makes the reader feel hopeless and depressed at the human condition yet there is also hope and resiliency and this keeps the reader engaged page after page. I think it is an incredible document worthy of wide readership.

An often-grim but always readable story about a few people in Berlin at the end of World War II. What surprised me was how quickly everything happened- a few days of bombing, then two weeks of the author's neighborhood being swarmed by Russian soldiers (good because they brought food, bad because of rape), then a gradual return to something resembling normal life. A month later, utilities were back, but food was rationed. There the diary ends.

A Woman in Berlin has been discussed as an important document about life in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Germany in Second World War. The book is the diary of an anonymous German woman of an upper-middle class background, who, like thousands of other German woman in 1945, is repeatedly sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers.

Suffering is suffering, and the author chronicles it well. But she strikes a delicate balance between depicting the horror of her situation, and also showing a rounded portrait of a fully thinking, acting, surviving woman. She is no mere victim. She is also the agent of her own fate, to an extent, and she exercises that agency when she can. The diary is proof of this, and in numerous instances she shows with great artistry the power that each of us possess as human beings, even in situations where we have little outward control.

And this, in turn, is the promise of art. It enables people to rise above their fortunes, even briefly, even as they depict them. The powerful ending, when the writer begins to type her handwritten diary, in order to provide a record of events, to make people understand, is where private life is transformed into art. It is when one person's suffering becomes the suffering of us all.

This is not an introspective geopolitical analysis, but rather, the story of a woman trapped in a defeated city. Personal diaries or memoirs are the rawest and purest form of history and this woman has made a noteworthy contribution. There is no reason why a writer would fabricate such a controversial story. And her treatment of the humanity and failings of both conquerors and conquered convinces me that it is genuine in its entirety. The author's name was revealed in 2003.

The last century was so fast-moving, so eventful -so strange and dense in colossal, nightmarish events -that it will be very difficult for future generations to get an accurate feel for it. Indeed, even for someone like me, who lived through half of it, I know that my knowledge and memories are too patchwork and too personal to allow for a deep understanding of the 20th Century, unless I keep working at expanding my knowledge of it. That is why records such as A Woman In Berlin are so important. Here is a rare, direct, honest account of momentous events from the heart of the greatest human conflagration of all time.

Anyone with simplistic notions of war -who still thinks it can be noble or just -should read this book. You might think that the fight against a murderous, genocidal regime led by a madman like Hitler could not help but be noble and just. This book documents how the rules and conventions of civilization break down under the onslaught of total war -what ordinary, desperate people will do when laws are no longer enforceable -how the victors can behave as badly as the villains they have vanquished. The author constantly comments on the atavism she sees around her 'We've gone back in time to pre-historic times.' -on how fast the most sophisticated of societies can devolve into barbarism.

It is truly remarkable that such a well-written journal could be kept under the most arduous and horrific of circumstances. I am reminded of the journals kept by the crew of The Endurance during Shackleton's ill-fated third journey to the Antarctic. The author is wholly unsentimental and lacking in self-pity, and yet compassionate and evocative in her descriptions of the devastation around her. Here are a couple of excerpts:

"After that I calculated that my period was over two weeks late, so I strode seven buildings down to where a woman doctor had hung out her shingle, though I'd never seen her before and didn't even know if she had started practicing again. Once inside I met a blonde woman, not much older than me, who received me in a wind-battered room. She'd replaced the window panes with old X-rays of unidentified chests. She refused to engage in small-talk and got right down to business. 'No,' she said after examining me, 'I don't see anything. Everything's all right.' 'But I'm so late. I've never had that before.' 'Do you have any idea how many women are experiencing the same thing? Including me. We're not getting enough to eat, so the body saves energy by not menstruating. You better see that you get a little meat on your bones. Then your cycle will get back to normal."

"On the way I had a new experience. Bodies were being exhumed from a grassy lawn, to be re-interred in a cemetery. One corpse was already lying on top of the debris -a long bundle wrapped in sailcloth and caked in loam. The man who was doing the digging, an older civilian, was wiping the sweat off with his shirtsleeves and fanning himself with his cap. It was the first time I had ever smelled a human corpse. The descriptions I've read always use the phrase 'sweetish odour', but that's far too vague, completely inadequate. The fumes are not so much an odour as something firmer, something thicker, a soupy vapour that collects in front of your face and nostrils, too mouldy and thick to breathe. It beats you back, as if with fists."

This journal was no doubt therapeutic for the author. And maybe more than that, perhaps it was a survival tool, helping to take her temporarily out of her terrible situation, even out of herself perhaps, allowing for a life-saving perspective (i.e. as bad as it is, this too will pass) and even retrospective humour (which was not possible at the moment of action). If you can remember (and a journal makes you thoroughly do so), it means that you have survived, and usually it also means that you expect to continue to do so. The author is incredibly resilient (she was starving and was raped multiple times). Is she able to write because she is resilient? Is she resilient because she has the discipline to write? Or is she writing because she is a journalist and that is what journalists do? Perhaps all three are true.

This book goes well with Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier in showing World War Two from the defeated German perspective. It documents the terror of the last days of German resistance as the Russians relentlessly advanced and the Allies carpet bombed the German capital. When would the enemy arrive? What would they be like? Would they be as bad as the stories being whispered by neighbours huddled in blacked out basements in the middle of the night? Then, almost anti-climactically, the Russians are there, and at first seem to be just soldiers, some of them friendly. But as the first day turns into night and the Russians begin drinking, the rapes began. No woman was safe, young or old. Many women were raped repeatedly, despite their attempts at hiding, or disguising themselves. Some women, like the author, coped and survived by making strategic choices. If you are going to be raped anyway, why not choose your ravisher from among the more decent and more powerful conquerors? Others chose a more drastic, permanent solution -suicide. There are many sad, sad stories in this book.

And yet A Woman In Berlin is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and of woman-kind in particular. Highly recommended.

Written by an anonymous woman trapped in Berlin for eight weeks in 1945, this novel is a timely reminder of the effect of war on civilians, in this case, Berlin as it is being overrun by Soviet troops. Long inured to nightly bombings and midnight races to the basements of their destroyed buildings for shelter, the German citizens have managed to survive the worst of the war and their country's humiliation, anxious to return to some semblance of normalcy, but frightened by what awaits at the hands of the Russians. A mix of the elderly, the infirm, women and children, the only men remaining are debilitated or former troops trying to avoid capture. Their collective resources are few, rotten vegetables, rationed bread, threadbare clothing. Caught in a limbo of fear and vaguely hopeful expectations, the future is virtually nonexistent: "Nothing in this country belongs to us anymore, nothing but the moment at hand."

The protagonist, a still-attractive woman, has been living with a widow and an elderly man since her apartment was too badly damaged to offer shelter. Their joint efforts allow the trio to survive the worst of the hardships, until the arrival of their new oppressors. The women are the first targets, the elderly and children left to fend for themselves. Fueled by alcohol, the Russians stream through the streets of Berlin, barging into darkened basements, carrying out the females to shadowy staircases where resistance is futile. Silently the women endure, as does the protagonist, creating a semblance of safety: "Again I have to reflect on the consequences of being alone in the world, in the midst of fear and adversity."

With peace on the horizon, the woman must start a new life, one removed from the ugly realities she has endured, made stronger, but broken too, by the abuse and weeks of scrambling for food and shelter. The experience has changed her in ways impossible to articulate, stronger, yet irrevocably altered by these desperate days in Berlin: "I only know that I want to survive- against all sense and reason, just like an animal." A Woman in Berlin is a timely reminder of the human face of war, the anonymous victims left behind in the rubble, piecing lives together with what remains. Luan Gaines/2006.

This work is fascinating both for its subject, the experiences of a German woman in Berlin as the Soviets enter in 1945, and its remarkable author, a clear-minded journalist who precisely chronicles her experiences in journal form.

The author's perception is applied to German and Russian behavior during and after World War 2, individuals surrounding her, herself and human nature. She explores the differences between groups of people other than the obvious German/Russian and Men/Women, such as educated/uneducated and old/young. Despite her own personal trauma and the privations of war, she presents a balanced perspective of the events she describes. This book is not as gloomy or dark as it might have been, and the author's wry sense of humor (or at least irony) surfaces frequently.

The writing is straightforward and uncluttered, making this an easy read. Obviously, the subject matter (in places) is very raw, but I think this book would be appropriate for high school age readers.

This is one the best WW2 firsthand accounts written by a German woman I have ever read. I could not put this book down.

It is the fascinating account of the last days of Berlin under the Third Reich, as well as when the Russians conquered the city. The anonymous author kept a journal of her experiences from which this book was later derived. I was stunned by the number of rapes committed by the Russians upon the German women and girls--I had no idea. I was also stunned and impressed by the survival instincts of the average female German civilian during this time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the daily life of German civilians (particularly the women) during the Third Reich/WWII. (less)

An intelligent, resilient, compassionate, resourceful woman chose to keep a diary during the dark days of the end of World War II in desolate, bombed-out Berlin, when the Soviet Red Army's `liberation' of the city included the rape of an estimated 100,000 German women, including the author herself. She chose to remain anonymous, and also shielded the identities of most of the fellow Germans around her.

The attitudes of the `Ivans' who arrived in Berlin ranged from the ruthless bullies who gang-raped German women from age 14 to 74 at one extreme, to the older, more senior, more refined Red Army officers who treated the German vanquished with respect and even compassion. Alcohol consumption by the Red Army was a catalyst for rape, pillaging and destruction. The Nazis consciously left behind stores of alcohol, believing that an inebriated Red Army would be a less effective fighting force. The Nazis clearly failed to realize that the alcohol would fuel a wave of revenge and violence against its own female civilians.

The author and most Berliners were without water, electricity and decent food for weeks on end. Red Army soldiers would wander in and out of the Germans' apartments, at all hours of the day and night, stealing whatever they wanted, grabbing and abusing the women, and defecating everywhere, indoors and out.

On the one hand, the Germans realized that they had this abuse coming to them, after the Nazi atrocities. "Our German calamity has a bitter taste - of repulsion, sickness, insanity, unlike anything in history" (page 257). On the other hand, the Germans fear and resent their liberators, who force them to work twelve hour days dismantling factories for shipment to Russia, with the only compensation being meager food rations. Out of hunger, many German women succumbed to the offer of food from the Red Army soldiers, in exchange for sleeping with them.

Despite living amid rubble and a largely hostile occupying army, the Berliners were remarkably calm and organized. Certainly there was looting by locals, and skirmishes in queues for water and food, but by and large the vanquished cooperated with one another. As the author wrote, she wanted to get busy in a constructive way, re-connect with herself spiritually, try to return to a normal life, to whatever extent that was possible. Berliners were mindful that they would no longer be masters of their own realm; rumors flew around that Germany was going to be converted into one huge field of potatoes. Berliners lived with discomfort and uncertainty during this period.

Gender roles were turned upside down at the end of the war. Erstwhile pompous Nazi men were now either dead, or emaciated and humiliated prisoners of war, or deserters in hiding, or elderly, hapless and hopeless as they watched or listened to their wives and daughters being raped. By contrast, the women took a lead role in cleaning up the ruined city, forming work crews to remove rubble.

Antony Beevor, author of "The Fall of Berlin 1945", states of "A Woman in Berlin" "... this book is one of the most important personal accounts ever written about the effects of war and defeat." I share his admiration for this book, and recommend it highly.

I've been reading books about the Second World War since I was 10 years old. It is very unlikely to find the perspective of a German woman. Most of the memoirs are from Holocaust victims or American soldiers, so it's nice to see a new story come to light.

The story was originally difficult for me to engage in, but at about the 20th page, I could not stop reading. Because this is written in a journal, the woman writing is a very honest. She doesn't hold much back, and in my opinion, it's a very unique look into the life of someone in a war torn city. It's surprising that this is a single woman, in a German household, at the time this was a vulnerable place to be in. She doesn't praise Hitler or the Third Reich, and doesn't discuss the concepts very much. She mostly writes on her day-to-day life and the stories of the people around her. Many fascinating, yet very morbid, melancholy stories. This is a really heavy read, but if WWII or the Holocaust are subjects that capture your attention, then this is a MUST READ.

The diary records how a German woman lived, felt, thought, ate, slept, saw, heard and survived when Berlin fell in 1945. The descriptions are vivid. The language shows sophistication yet is easy to read. The author was a journalist. The diary records her first hand experiences as a person, not a journalist as a third party.

The diary records how ordinary civilians were paying the price of the crimes committed by their national leaders.

There are also reflections by the author, which are deep and thought provoking. The diary shows the strength of the author and other survivors and people's abilities to adapt.

A good account of history and memories for later generations to reflect on.

Previous reviewers have outlined the substance of this book, however I would like to comment.I was also skeptical from time to time while reading "A Woman in Berlin", as the narritive is too polished in many places to be simply a diary. The author describes very long and harrowing days filled with fright,exhaustion, and hunger. It is, at times, hard to imagine that the author could pen somewhat eloquent passages after the experiences that are described.That said, I had to ask myself if it really mattered if what I was reading was a verbatum diary or a piece of historical fiction.

I found the book exciting and entertaining; I enjoyed it and I had the strong sense that the reader was given a good description of conditions in Berlin during the 8 weeks of late spring, 1945.Diary or not "A Woman in Berlin" is a good read.

When read in proximity to SUITE FRANCAIS, this book reawakens the horror of World War II as experienced by everyday people in a way that no fiction can duplicate. While SUITE FRANCAIS is fiction, it is comprised of actual events endured by the author and people known to her. This is a diary, written in code and shorthand on the same days in which the author's experiences and indignities were endured. According to one article, the original German version retained the author's personality as it is told in her own words, in her own style; this English translation is very literate, reading like a thriller -- a page-turner that almost defies the reader to believe in its authenticity. It is however, an authentic document, and all the more harrowing for it.

After finishing "Das Haus: Can two families -- one Jewish, one Gentile -- find peace in a clash that started in Nazi Germany?", Das Haus:: Can two families -- one Jewish, one Gentile -- find peace in a clash that started in Nazi GermanyI reread "A Woman in Berlin." While the two books have many things in common -- descriptions of the murderous Battle for Berlin, the vicious, wide-spread assault on women, etc. -- "A Woman in Berlin" adds a completely different perspective to what one writer has called the "sexual violence" visited by the Soviets on German women. "Anonymous" -- the author -- describes the sexual violence and the related misery that ruled life in Berlin in the spring of 1945 from an intimate, extremely frank personal perspective. She is so vivid in her descriptions, that the reader almost feels as if he or she walks in her shoes with her.

Perhaps this book might mean the most to those, who, like me, are always haunted by the thought: How could fascism have gripped such a civilized country as Germany? Here, in part, is an answer, at least from the viewpoint of one cultured, rather liberal individual who, by her own admission--knew about concentration camps and the fanaticism that surrounded her--but stayed in Germany, since Berlin was her home. The author had opportunities to leave Germany well before the war, and was encouraged by her foreign friends in England as well as Russia to emigrate before the terrible end that she witnessed. She explained, she would always, ultimately, feel herself a stranger in a strange land. Germany made her, just as it made Hitler.

Yes, this book is about the Soviet army's unacknowledged, unofficial policy of allowing rape upon their invasion and conquest of Berlin. Yet it is, more importantly, a clear-eyed account of one woman's attempts to understand her experiences as an individual and a German. An educated, independent middle class woman who had traveled throughout Europe, including the USSR, she never indulges in self-pity nor does she allow herself to be a victim. Nor does she paint her attackers and her neighbors as anything less than individuals--full of the capacity for violence, venality, sorrow, joy, humor and, occasionally, compassion.

She is honest, funny, philosophical, troubled and, ultimately, a survivor. After I turned the last page of this remarkably vivid memoir, I found it difficult to forget this woman's spirit and have repeatedly wondered what happened to this individual during the rest of her life, especially since, as is indicated in the introduction, she lived long enough to see the division of West and East Germany and the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall.

I'd recommend this book as a companion piece to the work of Max Hastings and Antony Bevoor about the fall of Germany.

Some books appeal to your intellect, others to your heart. This one hits you hard right in the gut. The author's shock, fear, suffering and revulsion are delivered relentlessly through her perceptive eyes, with poetic expressiveness and biting wit.

Along with the horrific experiences she recounts, some of the most searing passages are the reflections of her heart and soul. In the original German, they are particularly touching and thought-provoking. Her character, humanity and indomitable spirit transcend the pages that she wrote.

At the end of the nine-week period covered in the diary, I was struck by this true "Triumph des Willens" - the will to survive.

My mother was 10 years old when the Russians came into Berlin. She had told me stories of family friends she knew of who were raped repeatedly by the plundering Russians. Many ended their own life after.

This book really was an eye opener. Dread enters your stomach as you're reading the book especially before the approaching days of the Russians. Her power of observation of everything around her is gripping. A simply amazing read.

This tells THE story of the women - often the most innocent of victims - in a man's world war. Absolutely stunning and raw - but also shows the strengths of human hearts, too.
It fills in gaps of the war where books like this are rare to run on to.

The book takes you thru 2 months of Russian occupied Berlin. The story is sad, and the book rarely wavers in its story page after page. A miserable time, yet important to understand how people survived thru a will and determination.i could not give Jess than 5 stars to this true sad diary.

Despite all of my attentions paid to the history of man's cruelty to man,
(and women), over the course of the past few decades, I have never experienced a more poignant accounting of same than that which "A Woman in Berlin" had to offer. The author's physical survival and psychological victory over the most tragic circumstances imaginable is a testament to the power of applied intellect in the face of mindless savagery. Truly, this literary work is a wonderful testament to the strength of the female spirit and the durability of a pure human sole.

The occupation of Berlin by the Russian Army. A young woman's diary of a time of living hell. Frightening, true, horrifying, this is a book everyone should read in order to get a true perspective on war and its aftermath. Unforgettable and highly recommended.

It's almost a shame that the author is anonymous. Her writing is incredible. I have researched rape in conflict for the past three years and her insight and bravery and humor has helped challenge me. She truly is a survivor. I highly recommend this book. Far from being as depressing as you might think it is, it is an important book to read to understand what it means to be human and caught in the middle of a war.

Anonymous provides an important World War II, general war, and rape narrative. Powerful and unapologetic, the elitist German writer never proclaims herself a Nazi or directly forwards Nazi principals, but nonetheless showcases - if the reader is inclined to watch carefully for what is so delicately avoided - the mentality which allowed the Nazis to take power in the first place. Never does she acknowledge herself as racist, but the book is crammed from finish to start with intense anti-Slavic bigotry which predated the Russians ever setting foot on German soil. The belief system of Slavs being uneducated, inferior, "peasants," and "barbarians," is precisely what led hordes of German soldiers to, without provocation, march to war in the first place and murder Slavic civilians by the millions. And, as this author proves amply, it was very much cheered on by the women at home, who ultimately come to pay a very high price for their collusion as things come full circle. While two wrongs in no way make a right, particularly when the wrong in question is rape, the author takes extremely little account - sometimes none at all - of the circumstances which led to the situation she finds herself in. Her background, her previous ideology and that of her neighbors, is left vague or completely nondescript. There's moral anguish for the suffering endured by the Germans, but no sense of collective responsibility. Like the Slavic losses, the Jewish Holocaust is a one-line footnote, and the Romani Holocaust is never mentioned at all.

But the discrimination does not stop with other races, no. At one point, she chides about a fellow German - a young girl - perhaps needing to undergo corrective rape because it is presumed she is a lesbian. This speaks volumes, particularly as the author is presumed to be one of the more liberal, less-enthusiastic-for-Hitler types of the day. To the mainstream audience, perhaps, this brief vignette does not mean much, but how many members of the GLBTIQ community really consider such a joke...a joke? Particularly given that this is said in the ashes of the Nazi Regime?

Would the author have sent people to the camps herself? Probably not. But was she the type of person who stood by and has no leftover qualms of conscience about it? Absolutely.

Worth reading, but have no delusions before doing so about whether or not this lady was indeed a good Nazi.

From the perspective of one who was there shortly aftyer the events described, there is little doubt as to their accuracy.

Things about which nobody has discussed or dared to describe.

The "Victors" always prevall. Wonderful.

The author of this book did something truly amazing. She recorded her experiences in post-WWII Berlin and gave us an opportuniy to see what life was really like after the war; a part of history that is rarely talked about. If this is your first experience with post-war writings, as it was mine, it will truly leave you wanting to learn more.

The book is well written and moves right along. I understand Berlin was and still is a decadent city but its surprising that the rapes are no big deal.one woman of 60 described it as boring, the16yr old girl that was kept hidden was found and she bragged that the Russians ran right past her sister for her.then there's the women of Ukraine big hole women of Berlin little hole joke.the female author says that German men are not men in her eyes anymore since they lost the war.

Anonymous author's account of her experiences in a war ravaged Berlin shortly before and during the Red Army occupation is gritty and sometimes poignant. She comes across mostly as stoic, not maudlin. I agree with the reviewer who said she was at least a passive acceptor of Hitler's regime, although she never seems to take any personal responsibility for the rise of Nazism. I never thought of her as a heroin, as she never deliberately put her life at risk to protect or save others. And just surviving doesn't make a hero. Many women of Berlin suffered privations and rape. Some died. But they didn't die in the hundreds of thousands or millions as did young German and Russian men. They didn't experience horrible deaths on the battle field or from disease and starvation in POW camps. They weren't murdered or executed in large numbers and then burned or dumped in mass graves. A Woman in Berlin is an important part of the WWII story and should be read. But it is the story of a woman who suffered far less than many, and who at least had decades of life after a war that took millions of lives.

A highly intelligent, classically educated and cultured thirty-four year old single woman who was urged to emigrate but elected to stay in Germany because "I feel that I belong to my people, that I want to share their fate, even now," describes and reflects on what she endured and how she survived as the Russians occupied the shattered capital of the Third Reich.