When I first saw this book in the bookstore, I was immediately intrigued. I have always wondered as to the fate of everyday Germans after their country's defeat by the allies in world war 2. This book seeks to answer that and is made even more haunting by the fact that it is a true story.

The author is a journalist before the war and is now unemployed and living on rations at the start of her journal. For eight weeks she details with excruciating accuracy the fall of her city and the consequences on its inhabitants. By the time that the author begins writing, it is clear that Germany is on the brink of defeat despite all assertions to the populace that an upswing is at hand. The author and her neighbors are forced to endure almost daily jaunts into the basements to take refuge from the bombardments of the allies. But this is the life they have become used to and they just take it in stride.

As the war ended, the nightmare of the peace began for the women of Berlin. The Russian soldiers billeted in their neighborhood decided that it was time to claim the spoils of war, human beings(specifically the women) being their chief prize. Whereas the neighborhood had to previously worry about air raids and hunger, the biggest fear now became who and which of them would get raped and how many times. Early on the author realizes that if she is not shrewd, she will end up being violated by several different soldiers. She decides that perhaps it would serve her better to find one soldier, preferably of a high rank, and have him be her constant defiler. It is a horrifying way to think or live but this is her new reality and she must live with it. After reaching this agreement with the officer, she remains relatively protected and the officer also provides food and company for her and her room mates.

When the Russians finally leave and the men begin to return home, the women find that they(i.e the men) do not want to discuss what has happened in their absence. It is obvious that they are ashamed that they have failed to protect their women but some of them seem to blame the women. In fact, one of the only critics who reviewed this book in Germany when it was first published seemed to imply that the author should be ashamed of herself for what he saw as her wanton behavior.

Something that I really wanted to hear the author say was what her position was in regards to the Nazi party and its goals. Was she a supporter? Was she a dissenter? She never says and it seems to me like she purposefully avoided that perhaps fearing that if/when the journal was one day published and her readers were to hear of her sufferings, they would temper it with knowledge of her support for the Nazis if she has been one of them. This is speculation on my part and I have no real evidence to prove her allegiances.

Regardless of whatever side she fell on Hitler's views, no one deserves what she and the other women were forced to endure. It was brutal, degrading and barbaric. This is a haunting book that keeps you thinking long after you have put it down. When will we as a world rid ourselves of self destruction?

On a side note, I have seen some articles that debunk or deny the voracity of her claims. But what is important for me in reading this book is the universality of her story. Even if this particular woman did not experience all that she has detailed, the truth is many women did and many more women since and in other wars have experienced same and worse. ( )

A Woman in Berlin is the true story of one woman’s experience living in Germany in the country’s final 8 weeks of World War II; the 8 weeks after Russian troops reached the outskirts of Berlin, and conquered the city in 1945. The only people in the city were the elderly, women, children, and a few injured soldiers.

There was no running water and no electric. Surrounded by bombed out buildings, and living in a home with no window panes, holes in the roof, and nightly air raids that prompted everyone to rush to basement shelters, this anonymous writer kept a journal of daily events. She was an educated woman; a journalist with basic Russian language skills. Her diary vividly describes the city streets, the apartments, the clothes, the hunger and the fear, the pain and the isolation, the animosity felt towards Hitler and the failed political regime, and the contempt felt towards their own men, the hushed intimate conversations between the woman, and the intense intimidating communication with the Russian soldiers.

Above all, this is a documentary of the human capacity for survival. The Russian soldiers had just three things in mind: food, alcohol and sex. No woman was safe from rape. In fact, there was estimated to have been more than 100,000 rapes after Berlin was conquered. Women had little choice; hide in an attic somewhere and starve to death, or barter with the soldiers, sex for a loaf of bread.

It was all horrible, but near the end of the book I found myself thinking, okay, the war is almost over. The citizens of Berlin must have known by this time what happened to the Jewish people. At worst they approved and participated in turning the Jewish families in to the SS, robbing them of their lives and confiscating their belongings. At best, they stood by and did nothing, and with an animalistic instinct for survival, they tolerated and accepted. The anonymous writer expressed no theory, no opinion, no thoughts, no conversations, no inner psychological guilt, no remorse, and no spiritual angst - nothing - over what was done to the Jewish people. Her big complaint was over retreating German soldiers leaving all liquor stores intact for the advancing enemy “because alcohol impairs the enemy’s strength to fight. Now that’s something only men would think up. If they just thought about it for two minutes they’d realize that liquor greatly intensifies the sexual urge.”

The written message: war is barbaric and even the German’s suffered untold atrocities. My conclusion: at the end of World War II Berlin was a city of amoral people. Well written, unique, authenticity verified by experts, scathing documentary. ( )

Difficult to read in places, and very sad at the end. But pretty much a must-read. We need documents such as this. We need to read about the horrors of war in order to prevent it in the future. We need to be constantly reminded. ( )

Des livres sur l'horreur de l'avancée russe en Allemagne, j'en ai lu un certain nombre, mais celui-ci est particulier, l'histoire d'une survie, dans pathos, ni effets. ( )

C.W. Ceram (Kurt W. Marek) een bevriend schrijver heeft dit dagboek laten uitgeven. Hij heeft het nawoord geschreven en schrijft in 1954 o.a.: "Sommige dingen kunnen alleen worden vergeten als ze worden uitgesproken".
Vol bewondering voor de moed en de waardigheid van deze vrouw en voor alle vrouwen in die intense, afschuwelijke weken. Beschamend hoe mensen (journalisten) durven te twijfelen aan de echtheid van dit dagboek, zodat zij, deze vrouw, het na een eerste moedige uitgave in Duitsland, bij leven niet meer herdrukt wilde hebben. Ze verdient meer dan ons respect. ( )