A Woman in Berlin

Product Description

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. "With bald honesty and brutal lyricism" (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. "Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.

A Woman in Berlin stands as "one of the essential books for understanding war and life" (A. S. Byatt, author of Possession).

Top Reviews

An anonymous face to post WW2 horrors
by Kelley Ridings (5 out of 5 stars)
February 18, 2019

This diary is a rare account of an anonymous German woman's harrowing experiences at the end of World War 2 in Berlin. It centers only on the 8 weeks around the fall of the city to the Russians and the brutal aftermath of brutality (including rape and starvation) she and others faced as the post-war era erupted in Germany.

To provide a deeper context to this time, would strongly urge readers to consider as a companion to this book, Keith Lowe's outstanding book on the aftermath of the war in Europe, Savage Continent. Lowe's history details the stunning result of the war as Europe struggled to stabilize itself in the immediate post-war era. What Anonymous experiences in A Woman in Berlin, is more fully understood as her experience was stunningly common in post-war Europe. Anthony Beevor, a noted World War 2 historian also wrote a solid book on the subject, The Fall of Berlin 1945. Even though Beevor also wrote the forward to A Woman in Berlin, I think Lowe's book offered a more interesting history of this period.

I took a few days before writing this review to reflect deeply upon this book. It's one I just cannot get out of my mind. I already knew that many women in post-war Germany faced inhuman depravity from the allied conquerors, especially the Russians. Anonymous gave a face to this horror, through her anonymity. She had never intended to keep the journal for long, but as she was a journalist by profession, she wanted an an account of the end of the war and how it affected her life in Berlin. Little did she realize the horrific experience she and other women would have over the next two months. In the 1950s she allowed the diary to be published in Germany, but she was vilified as showing German women in a bad light. At her insistence, it was never again printed in her lifetime. After her death in 2001, it again was published, but this time to critical acclaim. It's easy to see why. Anonymous and women like her were the innocent victims of repeated tortuous abuse at the hands of vengeful victors. Some woman crumbled at such abuse. Others, like Anonymous, grew stronger from the horror and gained newfound understanding of the selves as they headed into a post-war world. This book and Anonymous will stay with the reader long after reading this diary.
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The grim reality of war
by exurbanite (5 out of 5 stars)
February 25, 2018

"They make a desert and call it peace". So wrote the Roman historian Tacitus of imperial conquests in the first century A.D. Two thousand years later, by the final days of World War II, Berlin too, was reduced to a desert containing little more than the bombed out carcasses of buildings and mountains of rubble often strewn with corpses. The remaining population, largely women, children and a few elderly men spent its time huddled in basement shelters.

The arrival of the victorious Russians added to the already existing chaos. There was looting, pillaging, and most famously, massive raping. The anonymous author of this eight week diary (the initial entry is on April 20, 1945, the final is on June 22), an attractive German woman in her early thirties, was an educated and well-traveled former journalist who herself was raped numerous times. She also endured forced labor as a washerwoman in a military installation and, like most other Berliners at the time, cold and considerable hunger. Rations were irregular and meagre and had to be supplemented by the picking and cooking of nettles or dandelions. Electricity, heat and transportation were lacking.

This memoir has become a classic due to the manner in which it is recorded. The diarist tells of events in a precise and dispassionate way. There is no whining self-pity, anger, blame or ideological circumlocution, just a graphic portrayal of the grim reality that is Berlin in the spring of 1945. Did German civilians deserve all this? Did they bring it upon themselves by their support of the Nazi regime? The questions are raised tangentially but not answered. The behavior of the conquering Russians is widely regarded as barbaric; otherwise attitudes vary or are stoically suppressed.

The diary ends on a poignant note. The author's pre-war boyfriend returns unexpectedly from what was the east front but war has disrupted and altered their relationship. He is shaken on hearing of the rapes; she, weakened by hunger, jealously guards her small supply of food while he wants to share it with friends. They part.

This chronicle, first published in Germany in 1953, sank into a long obscurity until reemerging in the early 21st century. The author desired anonymity though her name was published at one point by a German magazine. Seventy three years after it was written, the diary retains its value and relevance as a significant account of the final phase of World War II in Europe. Most of all, it is a compelling and highly readable saga on the horrors of war.
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OMG
by Cherrin (5 out of 5 stars)
October 22, 2018

I can hardly find words. I want desperately to know what happened to this woman. She lived until 2001, how did she survive? Her observations on the decades in Berlin after WWII would have been so valuable. But she wrote this diary as a way to connect and explain herself to her love who was away fighting the war. When he read the diary! And instead of understanding, rejected her, she stopped writing. I hope someday someone tracks her down and lets us know the rest of the story.

I was an exchange student in Germany in the late 1970's. The woman of my host family had been born in Berlin in 1943 or 1944. She had two older sisters, 12 and 15. The week the Russians arrived she was staying with her grandmother, because her mother had to work. A couple days before the Russians came her mother killed her sisters to save them from the rapists. Reading this, I thought of those two girls and my heart was torn. War is horrible.
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A window to a very historic time.
by Argman (5 out of 5 stars)
May 5, 2018

Having lived in Germany, I always wondered how the ordinary people dealt with such a crushing defat, utter destruction, and occupation by their worst enemies, knowing that it was all the consequence of their own actions and avoidable. The unknown author gives a very clear picture of the day to day lives and challenges Berliners faced in the last few days of the war and the first couple of months of defat. Daily challenges like hunger, humiliation, sexual assaults,... Emotional challenges like what has happened to the loved ones and friends, how to deal with certain enemy personnel, and dealing with the changed culture which is new and harsh. Finally, national challenges and future of the city and country which they loved.

I highly recommend this book.
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A story which needs to be remembered
by Amazon Customer (5 out of 5 stars)
December 12, 2016

One of the most powerful books I've ever read. It tells a heartbreaking story of a young German woman, who has to go through the hell of the Soviet occupation of Berlin. This is the story which most people still prefer to just forget about and pretend that allied crimes against the German civil population never happened, but people need to read this book and open their eyes to all sides of WWII, some of them as ugly as this one. The protagonist's voice is strong and powerful, and I couldn't help but admire her strength and will to go on when many women like her preferred to take their own lives rather than fall into the hands of the Red Army. This is a hard read, but it will stay with you for a long time. Thank you, Anonymous, for writing this!
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Unique perspective!
by Adrienne Perry (4 out of 5 stars)
July 6, 2019

This is a young journalist's memoir of the 8 terrible weeks of her life while living in Berlin at the end of WWII as the Red Army captured the city. Terrorized & oppressed, she was nevertheless determined to chronicle the horror & mass rapes that were unleashed upon the vulnerable women, children & aged of the city who were abandoned & defenseless.

As for the retreating German Army, she writes that they left: "...liquor stores intact for the advancing enemy - experience shows that alcohol impairs the enemy's strength to fight and slows their advance. Now that's something only men could cook up for other men. If they just thought about it for two minutes they'd realize that liquor greatly intensifies the sexual urge. I'm convinced that if the Russians hadn't found so much alcohol all over, half as many rapes would have taken place. ...they had to goad themselves on to such brazen acts, had to drown their inhibitions. And they knew it, too, or at least suspected as much, otherwise they wouldn't have been so desperate for alcohol."

She tells of the rape of another young woman in her building: "They lined up,' (the distiller's wife) whispers to us, while the redhead stays silent. "˜Each took his turn. She says there were at least twenty, but she doesn't know exactly... I stare at Elvira. "˜Show them,' says the distiller's wife. Without a word the redhead opens her blouse and shows us her breasts, all bruised and bitten. I can barely write this; just thinking about it makes me gag all over again."

The author herself was frequently raped as well. After nearly starving on a diet of nettles & rotten potatoes while fearing attack at every moment, she decides to "find a single wolf to keep away the pack" & took a Russian officer as a lover for protection. She describes it as "sleeping for food." She has no soap & writes: "I have this constant craving to give my skin a thorough scrub - I'm convinced that would make me feel a little cleaner in my soul as well."

Of what the starving & brutalized people thought of Hitler at this time she says: "And we have a new morning and evening prayer: "˜For all of this we thank the Führer.' A line we know from the years before the war, when it was printed in praise and thanksgiving on thousands of posters, proclaimed in speeches. Today the exact same words have precisely the opposite meaning, full of scorn and derision. I believe that's what's called a dialectic conversion.

The book was originally published in English in 1954 in the U.S., & was a great success; it was subsequently published in many other languages, including German. The Germans reviled the book & the author refused to have another edition printed in her lifetime. She died in 2001; at that time her identity was revealed to be that of German journalist Marta Hillers. It was reissued in Germany in 2003, to wide acclaim; even made into a movie there, & republished in English along with 8 other languages in 2005.

This is a one-of-a-kind book in my experience; interestingly told from a unique point of view. Well written but difficult to read because of the subject matter. The end of a cruel war from the eyes of the vanquished.
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A Powerful and Different Slant on WW 2.
by Annie (5 out of 5 stars)
February 24, 2017

Highly recommended account of the days that followed the arrival of the Red Army into Berlin and ultimate surrender of the Third Reich by a young German journalist.

It was an horrific time, but, although the anonymous writer describes the events in a low-key and non-sensational style, the impact is somehow more powerful. She is a close observer of events, people and the grim landscape without a second of self pity.

If you enjoy stories about the Second World War with a completely different slant I urge you to try A Woman in Berlin.
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A sad, although unsurprising read.
by Rabid Reader (5 out of 5 stars)
August 24, 2019

There is little question about the authenticity of this account of the bad behaviors of the Russians who were the first of the Allied Forces into Berlin. In fact, I have seen reference to this account in a documentary book about the bad behavior of ALL the Allied Forces in Germany after the fall of the Reich. The Russian troops, without doubt, were the worst. They stole (wristwatches and booze), shot, humiliated and raped (women aged five to 85) - whatever/whenever they could; their officers excused their behavior on the grounds that these men had been away from home so long, who could deny them the gratification of inflicting him on their enemies.

The account was out of print for years, but is worth reading if one has a strong stomach and the most minimal bit of pity for the conquered civilians.
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What it was like for an ordinary woman in Berlin during WWII
by Richard Niell Donovan (5 out of 5 stars)
January 16, 2014

This is an outstanding book that makes it possible to understand what Germans went through in Berlin as British and American bombers slowly but surely turned the city to rubble. More especially, it give insight into what German women experienced when the Soviets finally got to Berlin. Not a pretty picture, but an authentic one told through the eyes of a woman who lived through it.

A similar book is "The Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945" by Marie 'Missie' Vassiltchikov. She too lived in Berlin during WWII. The primary difference was that the author of "A Woman in Berlin" was an ordinary German woman, while Marie Missie Vassiltchikov was from a wealthy family with many high-placed friends. Her experiences were difficult, but her friends-in-high-places made it possible for her to survive with much less degradation. However, it was a near thing. It wouldn't have taken much for her to have missed a connection at some point--and to have ended up in Soviet hands. That could have been especially bad, because Vassiltchikov was Russian--White Russian, not Red.
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A brave woman's writings of her post war life
by Natalie (4 out of 5 stars)
June 8, 2019

I had a very difficult
time getting through the first half of this book. My dad emigrated from Germany with his whole family in the early 20th century. One of his brothers and family returned to Germany before WW1 and we had lost touch with them until after WW2. Then we sent care packages and communicated with them. I'm sure they must have endured so much they could never write about because they were in Karl Marxstad. This book brought all this to light for me.

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