A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous (ISBN:0312426119)

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		A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
	
				(22 reviews)			
(328 Readers)

			Anonymous		
	
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...more
 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).   less

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							Haley
						
							few weeks ago						
This book is terrifying in its truths of living in a conquered city. The subject of the book - living in a city occupied by a foreign army - rings true even today, especially in the Middle East. For the first time, one can read the story of rape during war from a first-hand account. I would reccommend it to anyone interested in diaries, World War II, psychology of rape victims and war survivors....more
 This book is terrifying in its truths of living in a conquered city. The subject of the book - living in a city occupied by a foreign army - rings true even today, especially in the Middle East. For the first time, one can read the story of rape during war from a first-hand account. I would reccommend it to anyone interested in diaries, World War II, psychology of rape victims and war survivors. It's a v. compelling read.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Excellent.  Presents a clear-eyed view of life in a conquered city from a female point of view.  A very strong woman!

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Wow guys, a difficult emotional read, but it's a story that needs to be told, a story that needs to be read.
To ignore this book is to ignore Rawanda, to ignore the Magdalen Laundries, to ignore child soldiers in West Africa....

"those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it"

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Amazing book about a very strong women in End-of-WWII era west Berlin.  Very graphic, but well worth it.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Such a good diary - it's hard to believe the way the Russians treated the people of Berlin after the city was taken over in World War II, and the anonymous author holds nothing back. A must-read if you are in to military history.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
A very candid and emotional diary of an anonymous woman who lived in Berlin as the Russian troops conquered the city at the end of WWII. Written almost as the events were unfolding, this book reads with an urgency as if the author were afraid her story would never be told. She chronicles her days holed up in the partially bombed-out apartment building with the rest of the tenants with very little...more
 A very candid and emotional diary of an anonymous woman who lived in Berlin as the Russian troops conquered the city at the end of WWII. Written almost as the events were unfolding, this book reads with an urgency as if the author were afraid her story would never be told. She chronicles her days holed up in the partially bombed-out apartment building with the rest of the tenants with very little food. The Russian troops bring an end to the food shortage, but they bring the threat of rape to almost every German woman in the city. While many women were embarrassed and afraid to talk about their experiences, the unknown author of this chronicle wrote as a spokesperson for them. This is an shocking, detail-rich, and rarely-told story from an opinionated and admirable writer.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Provocative and chilling.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Fabulous, disturbing read. A quick read, but definitely don't skip the intro and foreword, to place the diary in context. If you're like me, you've read plenty of books about the horrors the Nazis perpetrated on all walks of humanity, but this is the first book I've read about what the Germans suffered right as WWII ended.  The anonymous author is even-handed about it- at first she is shocked...more
 Fabulous, disturbing read. A quick read, but definitely don't skip the intro and foreword, to place the diary in context. If you're like me, you've read plenty of books about the horrors the Nazis perpetrated on all walks of humanity, but this is the first book I've read about what the Germans suffered right as WWII ended.  The anonymous author is even-handed about it- at first she is shocked about the "Ivan's" behaviors, but it quickly dawns on her that the soldiers from her country probably behaved equally barbarically.  Definitely an anti-war tract, whether intentionally or not.  The author questions gender roles as she knows them, and survival, as she has known it.  Puts (my) life into perspective.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
The Russians took brutal revenge.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
An amazingly dispassionate account of the weeks after the fall of Berlin that evokes more recent accounts of the Bosnian horror.  It's clear that rape has been a method of repression and punishment for centuries.  That it was a part of the German experience in those eight weeks in 1945 is something we aren't told.  

A remarkable woman and stunning tale.

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