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Eine Frau in Berlin

Anonymous,

Marta Hillers

4.32 · Rating details · 8,432 ratings · 1,100 reviews

Als kurz nach Kriegsende ihr lang vermisster Freund Gerd glücklich und unerwartet von der Ostfront zurückkehrt, findet er eine ihm fremde Welt vor. Die Entfremdung wird noch größer nach einem Blick in die Tagebuchaufzeichnungen seiner Freundin. Auf seine Frage nach dem darin häufig verwendeten Kürzel "Schdg." kann sie nur bitter lachen. "Na, doch natürlich Schändung." Kurz Als kurz nach Kriegsende ihr lang vermisster Freund Gerd glücklich und unerwartet von der Ostfront zurückkehrt, findet er eine ihm fremde Welt vor. Die Entfremdung wird noch größer nach einem Blick in die Tagebuchaufzeichnungen seiner Freundin. Auf seine Frage nach dem darin häufig verwendeten Kürzel "Schdg." kann sie nur bitter lachen. "Na, doch natürlich Schändung." Kurz darauf verschwindet Gerd. Ob für immer aus dem Leben der Frau aus Berlin -- wie so vieles wissen wir es nicht. Ihre Trauer darüber hielt sich in Grenzen. Nach all dem Durchlittenen war in ihr für Liebe und Zärtlichkeit kein Platz mehr frei.

Man sollte sich wappnen vor der Lektüre dieser Tagebücher, die als eines der ungeheuerlichsten und authentischsten Dokumente der letzten Kriegstage in die Literaturgeschichte eingehen dürften. Anonyma, deren wahre Identität -- verständlich genug -- auf eigenen Wunsch auch über ihren Tod hinaus unbekannt bleiben soll, schildert den Fall Berlins vom 20. April bis zum 22. Juni 1945. Ihre eigene Vita bleibt weit gehend im Dunkeln. Anfang 30, Fotojournalistin, weit gereist, mehrsprachig. Ihre Russischkenntnisse sollten sich in dem kommenden menschlichen Inferno als lebensrettend erweisen. Inmitten des Bombenhagels und in banger Erwartung vor den Russen, denen ein fürchterlicher Ruf vorauseilt, haben sich Hausgemeinschaften in Kellerlöchern verschanzt; junge Mädchen werden auf Dachböden versteckt. Es sollte in den meisten Fällen nichts nützen.

Anonymas unterkühlter, fast lakonischer Berichtston lässt die sich anschließenden Plünderungs- und Vergewaltigungsorgien in all ihren scheußlichen Details umso drastischer erscheinen. Trotz mehrfacher Schändung zeichnet sie ein wohltuend differenziertes Russenbild, frei von allem Untermenschendenken. Sehr bald jedoch erkennt sie pragmatisch: "Ein Wolf musste her, der mir die Wölfe vom Leibe hielt!" Anatol wird ihr "ständiger Begleiter". Fragen nach moralischer Integrität tauchen in ihr auf, werden weggewischt. In diesem Zusammenhang liefert sie auch eine schonungslose Bestandsaufnahme deutscher Mannsbilder, die sich nicht scheuten, Kellerfrauen dem Feinde zuzuführen, um selbst ungeschoren davonzukommen.

Dem Schriftsteller Kurt W. Marek (bekannter unter seinem Pseudonym C.W. Ceram, unter dem er den Bestseller Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte veröffentlichte), verdanken wir den Erhalt dieses "selbstentblößenden" Kriegsgemäldes. Marek, der in ihrer unmittelbaren Nachbarschaft wohnte, lernte 1946 die Schreiberin kennen und erfuhr von den Tagebuchkladden. Fünf Jahre Überzeugungsarbeit waren nötig, sie von der Notwendigkeit einer Veröffentlichung zu überzeugen. 1959 erschienen, geriet sie leider bald in Vergessenheit. Die Frau aus Berlin ist mittlerweile verstorben -- ihre Erinnerungen werden ewig leben. --Ravi Unger

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Sep 27, 2015 Agnieszka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-memoirs-letters, 2015, reviewed

Poor words, you do not suffice .

Indeed, words are not enough to convey that horror. We, lucky ones, born after the war, living in the time of peace, have to summon all our imagination, all human compassion and empathy to be able to catch though a glimpse of that suffering and humiliation that people then experienced.

A woman in Berlin, written by anonymous German woman, spans two months of 1945, from April until the 20 of the June and is a chronicle from besieged and defeated city. And because
Poor words, you do not suffice .

Indeed, words are not enough to convey that horror. We, lucky ones, born after the war, living in the time of peace, have to summon all our imagination, all human compassion and empathy to be able to catch though a glimpse of that suffering and humiliation that people then experienced.

A woman in Berlin, written by anonymous German woman, spans two months of 1945, from April until the 20 of the June and is a chronicle from besieged and defeated city. And because author stays unnamed throughout whole story it gives us a wider perspective and allows to raise above this particular period and extend our view. This woman, being herself, can be obscure daughter of Hecuba , unhappy sister of Cassandra, distant relative of every woman raped and mutilated through and by the war.

Novel, in a form of a journal, is very well written. You feel that author is well educated and had some writing experience, her thoughts are clearly expressed and balanced. From some snippets you know she knew French and a bit of Russian, that travelled a lot before the war, oh irony to Russia too. She is sensitive and compassionate but her report is nothing but dry facts. You don’t find here any self-pity, she doesn’t make too much fuss about conditions she and her compatriots had to endure. Only unemotional report about daily food rations, never-ending ventures for water, plundering and hunting for some food, air raids and burning city.

People, hiding in the basements like some parody of cave-dwellers, form close community, after all what better brings people together than mutual misery ?; but it is rather fragile bond, it can easily be broken. The real community is created by women. Because they took on themselves that first the wildest attack of Russian victors. While men were hiding, protected by their wives and lovers, women had to face repeated rapes and constant violence.

It’s a grim reading though there are truly heartening moments and some humorous accents as well ( seeing some men in naval uniforms our guide to this ghost city states only Apparently they’ve taken Berlin by sea as well. We certainly have enough lakes around ) .

I was trying to imagine her life after war. Did she accept her horrible past, did she find love and peace of mind ? Where did she live ? In Germany ? I could dig a bit for her but decided not to do that. Not everything is for sale and I respect her silence after that diary. She gave a testimony already. ...more

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Feb 22, 2017 Lilo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone who is interested in WWII and its aftermath

Shelves: diary, purchased-paper-book, ww2, historical-non-fiction-20th-century

The end of World War Two was not the same all over Germany. It was quite civilized in the West, where the Americans and the British approached, fought, and eventually occupied. It was anything but civilized in the East, where the Russians came.

There were significant differences between the Western occupying forces (namely, the Americans and the British) and the Russians. Yes, most of the Russians soldiers (and even officers) were primitive folks, many of which country population of the vast Rus The end of World War Two was not the same all over Germany. It was quite civilized in the West, where the Americans and the British approached, fought, and eventually occupied. It was anything but civilized in the East, where the Russians came.

There were significant differences between the Western occupying forces (namely, the Americans and the British) and the Russians. Yes, most of the Russians soldiers (and even officers) were primitive folks, many of which country population of the vast Russian prairies, with their average education level far below that of the American and the British soldiers. Yes, it was also in their culture (that is, if you wish to call this “culture”) that the victors loot the conquered areas, rob the defeated, and rape their women. Yet one cannot only account the behavior of the Russians to them being uneducated, primitive, and, if you wish to say so, animal-like. One should never forget how the German soldiers, members of a nation of “poets and thinkers”, members of (what they had been made to believe) a “master race”, had acted in Russia when invading the country without any provocation. They had just simply acted like pigs. No, I’ll take this back. I don’t want to insult pigs. O.k., not all German soldiers had acted like that. But plenty of them. They had not only robbed poor peasants of their livelihood, that is, their livestock, their meager food storage, and, quite often, their last loaf of bread, leaving them to starve, they had also murdered civilians of all ages, including children, and they had brutally raped women (and killed some right after).

So what kind of behavior would someone expect from a Russian soldier whose wife, sister, and/or daughter had been raped by invading German soldiers and/or whose whole or partial family had been murdered or left to starve?

Women remaining in Berlin, left with next-to-none supplies (and with no possibility to leave the city), got the brunt of this Russian behavior.

For the actual contents of this book, please read the description of this book. You might also wish to read about Marta Hillers, the assumed author of this book, which was, and still is, published with Anonymus as author. Here is the link to Wikipedia’s entry on Marta Hillers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marta_H...

After reading this book, I now understand why my grandmother, who wasn’t particularly religious, was praying every night that the Americans would arrive at our town before the Russians would get here.

Again, I have no intention to vilify the Russians. (Btw, my husband is 1/4 Russian. His paternal grandfather was an officer-POW in the First World War. He was assigned to slave labor on the farm where my husband’s grandmother was the farmer’s daughter.)

Who are THE Russians anyway? Who are THE Germans? Who are THE Americans?

THE Russians are the Berlin rapists; they are Tolstoy; they are Ivan the Terrible; they are Dostoyevsky; they are Putin; they are the fabulous dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet; they are my Russian Goodreads friends; they are my husband’s grandfather.

THE Germans are Hitler and the Nazis; they are Goethe and Schiller; they are Angela Merckl; they are my nice and also my nasty previous German neighbors; they are my friend Mariele, who was one of my dying mother’s caregivers and who purchased a mistreated mountain lion from a pimp and drove some thousand miles until she could finally deliver the animal to a zoo that would take it.

THE Americans are George Washington; they are Mark Twain; they are Richard Nixon; they are John Steinbeck; they are my beloved Barrack Obama; they are the first American GI I saw, who gave me the piece of chocolate he had in his pocket and my mother the fish he had just caught; they are our pious Mormon neighbors; and they are Donald Trump and the addle-brained masses who voted for him. ...more

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Sep 02, 2007 Zinta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When we speak of war fatalities, of those who have fallen, of those who have offered themselves up as sacrifices for the purpose of... but to what purpose? We think of fallen soldiers on the battlefield, yet far behind those front lines that so often are saluted in honor with parades and holidays -- are the women. Throughout the history of humankind, women of all ages have been treated as the prize of the conquerer. To the winner go the spoils, and the spoils are women.

"A Woman in Berlin" is a When we speak of war fatalities, of those who have fallen, of those who have offered themselves up as sacrifices for the purpose of... but to what purpose? We think of fallen soldiers on the battlefield, yet far behind those front lines that so often are saluted in honor with parades and holidays -- are the women. Throughout the history of humankind, women of all ages have been treated as the prize of the conquerer. To the winner go the spoils, and the spoils are women.

"A Woman in Berlin" is a journal kept over a two-month period of time in 1945, when Berlin was overtaken by the Russian (Soviet) Army. The author, dubbed simply "Anonymous," is rumored to be a German woman named Marta, well educated, perhaps a journalist who has seen much of the world... but not in this way. For eight weeks she chronicles the battle of the woman in war. Over 100,000 women are raped over this 8-week period in Berlin. Not once, but over and over again. The diarist writes of this time in a way that perhaps only a journalist could, keeping emotions in check, remaining clear-eyed, intelligence evident, apparently using her writing as a tool of survival. If the horrors of war are indescribable, the horrors of what women have had to endure as the human spoils of wars over time has had little examination, little if any punishment (arguably this behavior has even been encouraged), and even less understanding. This book is important reading to anyone wishing to understand war. Any war.

Who will pin purple hearts on these women for their suffering and degradation? Who can measure the wounds that never heal and their lifelong consequences to invidividuals and to societies? These are the unsung heroes who are forced to submit, yet so often rise up first to rebuild what war has torn apart -- homes, families, lives.

The first time this diary was published, it was not received as the heroic work of a survivor. The diarist was ostracized, because so often people turn away from and deny what hurts most, what reminds us of the depravity in mankind. She gave instruction to not publish these pages again until after her death, which arrived in 2001. But this is a timeless book, because women are being used and abused as the spoils of wars today. Witness Bosnia and Kosovo, Darfur, Iraq, and the list goes on to include every battle in which man has raised a weapon, himself becoming a weapon of destruction.

Essential reading. ...more

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Oct 29, 2008 Trée rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Two days after finishing, I still can't stop thinking about the haunting beauty of this rare journal, deeply saddened at the events described and equally saddened she didn't write more. This is the kind of book that sucks all the oxygen out of the air, that needs space once it is finished. The idea of starting something new is out of the question, almost sacrilege. One wants a moment of silence, to reach through time and hug the writer, which cannot be done.

The prose is understated and often bri ...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Paul Bryant rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, worldwar2

Although this book was and still is published anonymously, in 2003 the author was identified as Marta Hillers, a journalist who had died two years previously at the age of 90. She was cultured, well-travelled, multilingual, and 34 years old when she wrote this diary, which covers only 58 days. It was first published in 1954, in English, then four years later, in German. They really hated it in Germany.

Wiki quotes a German author Hans Magnus Enzensberger about the book’s reception and it’s worth ...more

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Mar 02, 2013 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mesmerizing, international-intrigue, europe, women-and-books, non-fiction, diaries-journals, war-stories

"Poor words, you do not suffice," this is what she wrote in her diary.

“The truth lay in the mass of closely observed detail,” says this book's editor. “The anonymous diarist possessed an eye so consistent and authentic that even the most imaginative forger would never have been able to reproduce her vision of events.” Indeed, you sense the authenticity in these words--even if the book really was authenticated. Being alongside the author during her private moments of journaling creates spaces ...more

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Apr 12, 2018 Edward rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: translated, biography-memoir-letters, germany-prussia, own, 5-star, non-fiction

Introduction, by Antony Beevor
Translator's Note

--A Woman in Berlin: Diary 20 April 1945 to 22 June 1945

Afterword, by the German Editor Hans Magnus Enzensberger

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Jan 20, 2010 Chrissie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, bio, favorites, germany, text-checked

I think everybody should read this book. When I began it I warned others that it is about rape in wartime. And that is true. Any subject in a good author’s hands can be worth reading. It is the ability of the author to make that subject comprehensible to readers that distinguishes a good author. We know now who the anonymous writer of these diaries was. Her name is Marta Hillers. The German writer Kurt Marek was responsible for the initial publication of the book in 1954, in the United States. T I think everybody should read this book. When I began it I warned others that it is about rape in wartime. And that is true. Any subject in a good author’s hands can be worth reading. It is the ability of the author to make that subject comprehensible to readers that distinguishes a good author. We know now who the anonymous writer of these diaries was. Her name is Marta Hillers. The German writer Kurt Marek was responsible for the initial publication of the book in 1954, in the United States. The author was anonymous. Only later was it published in Germany. Only after her death in 2003 was it revealed who the writer was.

The book is based on the author’s diary accounts from the 20th of April to the 22nd of June 1945. It gives us a personal account of one woman’s experiences when the Red army occupied Berlin. Her story lets us understand what she and those around her experienced. What they lived through.

When I read this book I thought: I am being shown a world that I could never, ever imagine. It was beyond belief. The horror of it! Fear. Hunger. Being alone, completely alone. And it is hard to imagine that people can act as they do. It is important to read this book. We must acknowledge how people can behave. Yes, you and I can behave so deplorably too.

So then you will think, why should I read this? Why should I put myself through this? We must understand in our gut what has happened. A book like this makes us aware both in our head and in our stomach, both with clear thoughts and powerful emotions what another human being has experienced. And why is this important? It is important since it teaches us to not judge others. Before judging another you must put yourself in their shoes. This author has let us walk in her shoes. And the writing shows us how we human beings behave.

Yes, this book is about rape, but it is also about survival. It is about hunger too. The book begins with hunger and ends with hunger. How many of us reading this book has any real comprehension of being HUNGRY? Can we come to understand what we might do, what choices we might make if we were hungry as she was? You will understand her choices when you read this book. I will say it outright: in an effort to survive this woman realized that she needed to find a Russian that would provide her with food and safety. One’s chances of not being raped were minimal. If you are going to be raped anyway, why not make sure you get food in the bargain? By aligning yourself with a Russian of higher rank you could perhaps have him protect you from indiscriminate raping. But to understand the world she was living in you must read her words. When this book came out it was the women who were accused of bad behavior. The author was a survivor. I respect this woman. She was a journalist. She was well educated. She had traveled through Europe. She knew Russian. All of this is evident in her diary writing. She used her head and she survived. How can you look down on such a person? How can you criticize her if you have no idea what she has experienced?

You can only understand her choices by following her diary writings.

And the ending…. When her boyfriend comes back he doesn’t understand her actions. He too thinks she has degraded herself. We do not know if eventually they can bridge this incomprehension of what each has experienced in the war. I was so happy before her boyfriend came back. She had survived. I was so dam proud of her. I was crushed by his incomprehension. If he had read the book, he would maybe understand what she had gone through. If you read the book you will understand what she went through. If you read the book you will not judge others too quickly. I don’t think this book is terribly sad or depressing. I am so happy she survived. Dam, she is some strong woman, this author, Marta Hillers. She has let us see what happened to her. I admire her for surviving. I am so very glad she shared her experiences with us. I thoroughly understand her wish that the book have an anonymous author while she lived.

One does not read this book to find out if her boyfriend comes back. For this reason I do not think my telling you this is a “spoiler”. Only those of you wanting to understand another human being should bother to read this book. You have to want to get into their being. You have to want to become them in an effort to understand them and what they lived through.

There is a little boy at the end of the book who sees an old horse pulling a cart. He turns to his mother and says, “Mutti, can we eat the horse?” Earlier in the book another horse was still moving when he was cut into by hungry Berliners. Have you ever been that hungry? Do you have any idea how their world was? Do you want to understand their world? Read the book.

Be very careful before you judge another human being’s behavior.

I must add this. Although the subject matter is not light, the way the author expresses herself will make you smile. She calls herself the “automatic walking machine”, as she trudges to work….. This author can write. I wish I could copy parts of the book to show you, but I cannot use both Vocatex and Zoomtex at the same time. I need Vocatex to read the book and Zoomtex to write my review. When I am writing the review, I cannot read the book – so no quotes! This is so annoying to me.
...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Victor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The book is a journal that covers first eight weeks of Soviet occupation of Berlin at the end of WW2. This is one of the better written journals and one of the most honest.
The author was a gifted writer who didn't sugar coat the subjects of war-time rape when women became nothing more than the spoils of war. The victors were entitled, plain and simple, and no orders, or threats, or pleas could stop the daily assault of Red Army on the female civilians.
The German women knew it was coming. They we ...more

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Jun 23, 2008 Katy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone.

Shelves: memoir, favorites

I was floored. Jaw on the floor, heart in my stomach, tears in my eyes floored. This book should be required reading for all women everywhere. It should be on high school reading lists and mandatory for all new military recruits. About what war does to women and children, about how the men go and fight and forget that if they lose it’s the women who suffer. Who are raped repeatedly and who watch their children starve to death in the rubble of their lives. But Anonymous writes her journal entries ...more

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Apr 30, 2019 Jill Mackin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ww2, history, germany, war

A difficult read. A harrowing account of what war does to women.

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Dec 29, 2015 Nicole rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ownbooks2016, new-authors-2016

Since writing the reaction below, I have come to think that the strength of this book is the empathy and intelligence of its author. And yet, I also still feel that the anger is appropriate. Maybe she is simply a different kind of person than I am: better equipped to practice tolerance and empathy and understanding. Also, more practical: a virtue I know that I lack.
______________________________________________

I was prepared for the rapes. Here is what I was not prepared for: the words of the m Since writing the reaction below, I have come to think that the strength of this book is the empathy and intelligence of its author. And yet, I also still feel that the anger is appropriate. Maybe she is simply a different kind of person than I am: better equipped to practice tolerance and empathy and understanding. Also, more practical: a virtue I know that I lack.
______________________________________________

I was prepared for the rapes. Here is what I was not prepared for: the words of the men doing the raping. I love you, do you love you me, you're a whore, I haven't had sex in so long, oh god poor poor me.

Here is what I responded in my head to the comparatively gentle officer who asks her to "love" him, who tells her how much he has suffered without access to sex. "In the past days, I have been repeatedly and violently raped by a myriad of your comrades, so much so that I now have to beg you to be gentle because I am physically injured. Of course I don't want to have sex with you. I never want to have sex with anyone again. I will have sex with you because it is the lesser of two evils, because you will hurt me less than the others, because you might keep the others off me. But this is not love, and it is obscene for you to talk as though it is, as though it could be. If you truly loved me, as an individual or even just as a fellow human being, you would keep your disgusting dogs off me and not ask for payment in the form of sexual favors. You would not force me to be a whore out of self-preservation and then denounce me for it. You would not confuse this transaction born in violence and slavery with a free choice. And you would never have have the unmitigated gall to suggest that you have suffered. You and all of your ilk, you're barely human. Someone should put you the fuck down, like the rabid animals that you are. You don't deserve my love, or access to my body. How dare you even ask?"

Of course that's not what she says, not even to herself. But I'll be good god damned if I give up one inch of the freedoms that I enjoy as a free woman in a free state, I don't give a fuck who's asking me to, or why, or what they may or may not have suffered. Anybody who says anything else, anything at all, isn't a real feminist, no matter what half-assed theory they cite.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Or, you know, shove it. Either way. ...more

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Nov 06, 2007 Ally rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, non-fiction

This blew me away. What it might be like to live in a city that's subject to invasion, occupation and destruction by an enemy whose force you cannot hope to match -- that's what it offers us a glimpse of.

The fact that it's from a German perspective only underlines the reach of this diary. It's an anonymous woman's account of the 20 or so days during which the Russians took Berlin in April 1945. When a city's unarmed citizens (especially the women) become spoils for the victors, and we see humani ...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Caroline rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Caroline by: Kirsty

Shelves: history, auto-and-biog

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This review contains spoilers

This is the story – told over a couple of months – about the Russian invasion of Berlin at the end of the Second World War. It is the story seen through the eyes of one woman, a well-travelled journalist, who now finds herself, like millions of other Germans, struggling to survive at the end of the war. She writes without self-pity, suggesting a steely robustness that carried her through the innumerable challenges she had to face. The book was written anonymously, ...more

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Mar 23, 2016 Aldi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: german, personal-accounts, survival-stories, ww2, books-that-dont-fit-neat-categories

There’s a certain type of survival story that requires the reader – decades later – to weep, commiserate, or at the very least remark on the courage of the one telling the tale. Every time I had even the slightest inclination to do any of those things while reading this book, I felt as if the author was cocking a brow at me, cynically, half-laughing, rejecting my sympathy. She didn’t need it. She wouldn’t want it. It was so refreshing.

This is an incredible book, probably one of the best I’ve re There’s a certain type of survival story that requires the reader – decades later – to weep, commiserate, or at the very least remark on the courage of the one telling the tale. Every time I had even the slightest inclination to do any of those things while reading this book, I felt as if the author was cocking a brow at me, cynically, half-laughing, rejecting my sympathy. She didn’t need it. She wouldn’t want it. It was so refreshing.

This is an incredible book, probably one of the best I’ve read from a German perspective dealing with the immediate aftermath of WW2 on a personal level. It’s a two-month slice, precisely carved, of intensely personal history, a mere snippet of one woman’s experience in the weeks following the liberation of Berlin, dealing with hunger, the Russian Army’s freedom to take what they want, uncertainty, loss, and of course, rape on a daily basis, that facet of Allied victory that was later declared taboo and swept under the rug. Spoils of war, considering the whole thing pragmatically. Gallow’s humour. Talking to other women, each conversation preceded by a darkly humorous, “Raped how many times?” –“Oh I’m not sure, I had to work my way up through the ranks.” Making a joke of it, an arrangement, inventing new language. (“Schändungsschuhe, Majorszucker, Nahrung anschlafen”). This precise account is not asking for pity. It’s straightforward and often startlingly funny, in a very dark way. It doesn’t gloss over the horrors of war, relates the terrible tragedies of the final days of the fight for Berlin frankly; but the author never takes the easy way out, never paints the Russians as animals or perpetrators of evil. She draws each one she encounters with the acerbic accuracy of political caricatures, but as real people. When it comes to the large-scale rapes Berlin women were subjected to by the Russian army, there’s an appalling yet compelling bluntness about her assessment that “our guys probably did the same over there, or worse” but she never excuses either side; nor is her account devoid of emotion. Her writing is laconic, dry-humoured, frank; she refuses the mantle of victimhood (although she could have embraced it, having no particular pro-Nazi sympathies) as much as she does that of deserving accomplice to genocide. She considers ideologies, asks questions, sometimes cries (“damn, smears on my paper”); she’s not emotionless, but clear-sighted, unapologetic, determined to live. I did cry, a couple of times, because I couldn’t help it, but on the whole this is not a book that asks you to mourn. It asks for nothing. It just drags you straight into that two-month span and leaves you to consider history from the most stripped-back, immediate layer, that of the individual.

There’s a movie and it’s not badly done but I highly, highly recommend the book over it. This woman’s words, her refusal to be a victim or let others control her story, cannot be approximated or interpreted by another medium. In fact, the only time I was ripped rudely out of it was when I hit the afterword and found a man trying to sanction, interpret and/or justify this account. No, dude. Fuck off. Let it stand for itself.
...more

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Aug 19, 2018 Swaye rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, books

"But here we're dealing with a collective experience, something foreseen and feared many times in advance, that happened to women right and left, all somehow part of the bargain. And this mass rape is something we are overcoming collectively as well. All the women help the other, by speaking about it, airing their pain and allowing others to air theirs and spit out what they've suffered."

Extraordinary. Such a well-written, brave and honest account. This is a true horror story. The subject matter ...more

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May 13, 2016 Elizabeth added it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-ii

This is one of those books where I empathize so deeply with the narrator that it makes my heart ache I can’t meet her and talk to her. Though – what would I say? What could I possibly say?

A Woman in Berlin was written as a diary – a way for the diarist to keep herself sane during incomprehensibly insane days – during and following Germany’s surrender at the end of World War II. First published in English translation in 1954, it wasn’t published in Germany until 2003, after the anonymous diarist’ ...more

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Sep 30, 2018 Jess rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, germany, cover-envy, feminism-and-empowerment-done-right, ww2, translation, favorites, non-fiction

‘These girls have been forever deprived of love’s first fruits. Whoever begins with the last phase, and in such a wicked way, can no longer quiver with excitement at the first touch.’

Stunning. Frankly written with economy and clarity, this rare journal illuminates the true reality of war: whilst military leaders revel in their dreams of victory, it is the ordinary people whose lives are trampled.

The anonymous journalist documents her experiences with a complete absence of bias; instead, her stor ‘These girls have been forever deprived of love’s first fruits. Whoever begins with the last phase, and in such a wicked way, can no longer quiver with excitement at the first touch.’

Stunning. Frankly written with economy and clarity, this rare journal illuminates the true reality of war: whilst military leaders revel in their dreams of victory, it is the ordinary people whose lives are trampled.

The anonymous journalist documents her experiences with a complete absence of bias; instead, her story aches with empathy. When we consider the female experience amid the androcentricity of war and victory, ‘rape’ or more specifically ‘mass rape’ are what tend to spring to mind, especially in conjunction with the siege of Stalingrad or the occupation of Berlin. Of course, the hideous act of rape is by no means exclusive to women - and there are definitely more dimensions to women's suffering besides rape or assault, that’s what we tend to get caught up in. And yet, her account is not restricted or solely dedicated to the experience of rape in Berlin. I am by no means belittling the terrible act of rape and its consequences, but what makes this account so powerful is that the anonymous journalist details and emphasises the shared adversity that both the victors and the vanquished face throughout the war, and most crucially, the surprising acts of humanity that exist alongside. She provides an unflinching snapshot of everything from air raids, rationing and rape, to desertion, basement-comradeship and the state of the tram service. This account therefore becomes a universal social commentary and examination of power play; essential reading to not only understanding war, but life and the human condition in the face of horror.

A Woman in Berlin should in theory be entirely unbearable to read. And I am certain that it would be, were it not for the journalist’s sardonic wit and dry humour. Although it does become meditative in places, her voice never feels forced or preachy, as such war journals are wanton to do. Throughout her account there is not one shred of self-pity, which is in a way startling. This could be accredited to her journalistic training and style, but I think her evident courage and honesty belies that assumption.

Any sort of autobiographical material is incredibly difficult to critique or rate - this is someone’s life after all. I am however of the firm belief that no form of art is above criticism or interpretation: in my opinion, the authority of her narrative waned throughout her final entries. Nevertheless, A Woman in Berlin is extraordinarily powerful, not only in its subject, but in the way in which it is told: beautifully written and startlingly direct, the author is at once compelling and overwhelmingly human. It is, quite simply, remarkable. ...more

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Nov 07, 2015 ❆ Crystal ❆ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, g-non-fiction, g-historical-misc, 5-stars

5 stars for her courage, her bravery, her resilience, her determination, her ability to survive and, most important, her wiliness to share this story with the world.
This is an amazing real-life account, by diary entries, of a 34 year old woman that was living in Berlin when the Russians stormed the city. It was terrifying from the first moment she first saw a Russian to a week or so later when some civility was finally put in place. Rape in war has for sure happened many time before in history. ...more

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Feb 19, 2009 Denis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is quite a stunning book - some have questioned its authenticity, some on the contrary have carefully explained why it can only be a real document. The fact is, this diary of an ordinary German citizen who lives through the fall of Berlin, during WWII, is breathtaking, and transports us like no other book does into the heart of a nightmare that did happen. As any diary written by a simple citizen, it's all about daily life - yet daily life in Berlin in 1945 is far from normal. It's actually ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was an extremely difficult book to read, not because of the prose because the book was extremely well written but because of the subject matter. It is the first book, and actually it is non fiction from the authors own diary, I have read about a insider living in Berlin and what the ordinary people went through when the Russians took over. She writes for her own sanity but also in the hope that if her husband returns he will read it and know what has happened to them. All the rapes, young a ...more

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Oct 14, 2008 Hannah added it · review of another edition

Matter-of-fact and quietly devastating.

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Mar 10, 2012 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it really liked it · review of another edition

One hundred twenty-one pages of gray war-issue paper came out from the ruins of war and became this book. It's a diary of a "pale-faced blond" German woman, most likely a journalist in the 1920s who had had travels in twelve European countries and knew several languages, including a little Russian. She never wanted to disclose her identity and forbade its publication during her lifetime.

The first entry was marked "Friday, April 20, 1945, 4:00 p.m." That day was Adolf Hitler's birthday. The last One hundred twenty-one pages of gray war-issue paper came out from the ruins of war and became this book. It's a diary of a "pale-faced blond" German woman, most likely a journalist in the 1920s who had had travels in twelve European countries and knew several languages, including a little Russian. She never wanted to disclose her identity and forbade its publication during her lifetime.

The first entry was marked "Friday, April 20, 1945, 4:00 p.m." That day was Adolf Hitler's birthday. The last one was marked "Saturday, June 16 to Friday, June 22, 1945." Ten days after the first entry Hitler committed suicide. The diarist didn't know about it. She didn't even write anything that day and only wrote about her recollections the day after, May 1.

The little over eight weeks covered by this diary was perhaps the most tumultuous period for the city of Berlin during the last world war. Its beginning was when Berlin's eastern part (where the author lived) was shaking from Russian bombardment and the entries ended at the time when the Russians were slowly trying to restore normalcy to the city after the German surrender. In-between were deaths from bombs, arrests, suicides, hunger, and a lot of rapes of German women (including girls, mothers and grandmothers) by Russian soldiers. The author was not spared from these. Writing on May 1, 1945 she tried to remember the events of two days before, Sunday, April 29, 1945. A poignant line reads: "Exactly how the evening passed escapes me at the moment. Presumably brandy, bread, herring, canned meat, coitus, Anatol." Anatol was a minor-ranking Russian officer whom she tried to keep as her permanent rapist--just so that she will cease to be fair game to other soldiers and also for some food he'd share with her. This was just one of the many tricks, some verging on the ludicrous, the women residents of the city had resorted to to avoid being raped or at least minimize the incidents (one pretended to be a boy, another hid in the attic all the time, others tried to make themselves as repulsive as possible, like not bathing or pretending to have horrible diseases).

But it was not a long procession of cinematic horror as it would probably have been had the diary been fake (initial doubts about its authenticity were expressed by some). There were many moments of everyday ordinariness, as if there had been no war, like when the author met gentlemen Russian soldiers who treated her like a lady and who were interested more in discussing, say, politics, than sleeping with her. Or when she had interacted with some people to discuss a printing business they thought they can put up as Berlin struggles to recover. It was a city in a twilight zone, hovering between sanity and barbarism. ...more

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Nov 27, 2018 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A very true and moving account of the perils and hardships of war.

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Jan 27, 2008 Gwen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the diary a woman kept during the weeks when the Russians occupied Berlin in 1945. I knew nothing about this episode--when you learn about the end of WWII, it's all about liberating the concentration camps, not what happened to the Germans. I mean, it's hard to work up a lot of sympathy.

Until you read the introduction, in which you find out that over 100,000 German women were raped by Russian soldiers in the first couple of weeks after Berlin fell. Hitler, being a megalomaniac insane per This is the diary a woman kept during the weeks when the Russians occupied Berlin in 1945. I knew nothing about this episode--when you learn about the end of WWII, it's all about liberating the concentration camps, not what happened to the Germans. I mean, it's hard to work up a lot of sympathy.

Until you read the introduction, in which you find out that over 100,000 German women were raped by Russian soldiers in the first couple of weeks after Berlin fell. Hitler, being a megalomaniac insane person, refused to evacuate women and children from the city as the Russians advanced, leaving them trapped and unable to get food or protection. They were already living in bombed-out buildings, scavenging for food, and then the Russians--who are all referred to as "Ivan"--show up.

The author keeps a heart-breakingly frank diary of what happens to her and those around her--the attempts to hide daughters in attics and crawl spaces, the fear of being caught in the stairway, efforts to make themselves look ugly, diseased, or as though they're menstruating. Group rapes are common. After a few days, a rapist who is "gentle" because she is so sore, or one who leaves behind money or food, stands out as a highlight of the day. After the brutal forcible rapes become less common, the more subtle form of rape occurs--the women try to align themselves with one particular Russian soldier to protect themselves from others, although there is no guarantee this will work--and of course their "voluntary" sexual relations with these men is not voluntary at all, since it's an effort to protect themselves from even worse sexual exploitation.

It's just mind-blowing to read her accounts--every time women who haven't seen each other in a while meet, the first questions is, "How many?", meaning "How many Russians raped you?" It becomes a joke--the women deal with the situation collectively by laughing at the rapists, saying they are horrible in bed or poorly endowed, congratulating themselves for being attractive enough to be raped, and so on.

Although of course it's not funny. They all worry about STDs and pregnancy, and women share information of doctors or remedies that might help should they encounter either. And the author recognizes that when the German men return, all the women will have to pretend that THEY PERSONALLY escaped the raping so their men will not see them as ruined. So they're victimized, but they already know that once life starts to return to "normal," they'll have to pretend it never happened. Their men's honor depends on them denying this horrible situation.

I loved reading the book--the author is insightful, witty, and informative--but it's definitely not FUN to read. ...more

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Mar 22, 2008 Maurice A. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Maurice by: I saw a book review of it.

The sad events of World War II have traumatized many people on all sides of the conflict. “A Woman in Berlin” is an autobiographical description of the trauma experienced by a young German woman living in Berlin during the Russian conquest. It was written anomalously and published after the war. This thirty-four year old woman probably was impressed with German success early in the War, but experienced, first hand, the consequences of such aggression. Her comment about Hitler’s dreams of conques ...more

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Dec 17, 2010 Miquixote rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war, 60-pop, biography, northern-europe, 4, feel-5

Shocking, revealing. Captures the day to day of life of common people during and immediate post- war. The author, incredibly, doesn't even appear to feel sorry for herself. And after how many atrocities committed by the Russian pillagers? You'll have to brave this book to find out the details. This book was initially printed in 1954 and mostly ignored and rejected by the German population for depicting new truths that they didn't want to deal with yet. In 2003, the author, who did not want it re ...more

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Mar 03, 2008 Casey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone, but especially women

This is one of the most incredible books I have ever read and I think that it is a book that everyone should read, but more importantly every woman should read. it is a story of strength and resiliance and gives us a glimpse into the lives of people that we may have thought growing up were the "bad guys". Every time I learn more and more about WWII I realize that aside from the horrible atrocities of the holocaust, the line between good and bad can sometimes be unclear. A word of warning, many s ...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Sundry rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction

A truly amazing journal of one woman’s experience. She was a writer before the war, and traveled widely, and keeping a diary probably helped her keep her sanity.

Very well written. Intelligent discourse. An important look at the particular price women pay in wartime, how they become part of the loot and a target for vengence.

The author also observes in detail how society changes in times of extreme danger and deprivation. How it flexes to allow for every individual doing what s/he can to survive ...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Rowland Pasaribu rated it liked it · review of another edition

WHEN THE ANGEL SING WITH TEARS OF BLOOD

Focusing in particular on the German-Soviet war in the East, this book explores variations in patterns of sexual violence associated with armed forces in Europe during and immediately after World War II subjectively. Besides soldier violence perpetrated against civilian populations, a significant role was also played by irregular forces: most notably, by partisan guerrillas and civilian vigilantes. Ethnic nationalist partisan forces perpetrated especially b ...more

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“These days I keep noticing how my feelings towards men - and the feelings of all the other women - are changing. We feel sorry for them; they seem so miserable and powerless. The weaker sex. Deep down we women are experiencing a kind of collective disappointment. The Nazi world - ruled by men, glorifying the strong man - is beginning to crumble, and with it the myth of "Man". In earlier wars men could claim that the privilege of killing and being killed for the fatherland was theirs and theirs alone. Today, we women, too, have a share. That has transformed us, emboldened us. Among the many defeats at the end of this war is the defeat of the male sex.” — 8 likes

“Ich versuche mir vorzustellen, wie es wäre, wenn mir dies Erleben zum ersten Mal auf solche Art zuteil geworden wäre. Ich muß den Gedanken abbremsen, so was ist nicht vorstellbar. Eines ist klar: Wäre an dem Mädchen irgendwann in Friedenszeiten durch einen herumstreunenden Kerl die Notzucht verübt worden, wäre hinterher das übliche Friedensbrimborium von Anzeige, Protokoll, Vernehmung, ja von Verhaftung und Gegenüberstellung, Zeitungsbericht und Nachbarngetue gewesen – das Mädel hätte anders reagiert, hätte einen anderen Schock davongetragen. Hier aber handelt es sich um ein Kollektiv-Erlebnis, vorausgewußt, viele Male vorausbefürchtet – um etwas, das den Frauen links und rechts und nebenan zustieß, das gewissermaßen dazu gehörte. Diese kollektive Massenform der Vergewaltigung wird auch kollektiv überwunden werden. Jede hilft jeder, indem sie darüber spricht, sich Luft macht, der anderen Gelegenheit gibt sich Luft zu machen, das Erlittene auszuspeien. Was natürlich nicht ausschließt, das feinere Organismen als diese abgebrühte Berliner Göre daran zerbrechen oder doch auf Lebenszeit einen Knacks davontragen.” — 3 likes

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