Limit search to available items
Book

Title A woman in Berlin / Anonymous ; with an introduction by C. W. Ceram ; translated from German by James Stern
Published London : Secker & Warburg, 1955

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 W'PONDS  940.548243 Wom  AVAILABLE
Description 284 pages ; 21 cm
Summary The anonymous author of this memoir was living in Berlin in April 1945 when Red Army soldiers marched into the city. What followed was an orgy of rape. In a series of unsentimental diary entries, the book's author - a German woman in her early thirties - describes the final days of the Third Reich, and the ordeal she suffered after Russian soldiers found her hiding place in a basement in east Berlin. One of Germany's leading literary editors, Jens Bisky, has identified the author as Marta Hillers - a German journalist who had studied at the Sorbonne, travelled extensively in Europe, and had written for German newspapers and magazines. According to Bisky, A Woman in Berlin was Marta Hillers's only major work. After the war, she circulated her diary among friends. One of them, German author Kurt Marek, recognised its value, and had it published in America. Hillers later married, moved to Switzerland, abandoned journalism, and disappeared. The chances are that the author was Marta Hillers, although that cannot be confirmed. Hillers died in June 2001, aged 90, and her executor refuses to comment
Notes An anonymous story of life in Berlin during the Russian occupation, 1945
Translated from the German
Subject Hillers, Marta, 1911-2001 -- Diaries.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, German.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany -- Personal narratives, German.
Berlin, Battle of, Berlin, Germany, 1945 -- History -- Sources.
Berlin, Battle of, Berlin, Germany, 1945.
Germans -- [DVD]
Women in war.
Women -- Germany -- Berlin -- Diaries.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Atrocities -- Germany -- Berlin.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Destruction and pillage -- Germany -- Berlin.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, German.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Personal narratives.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Germany -- Biography.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Women -- Germany -- Berlin.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany -- Personal narratives, German.
SUBJECT Berlin (Germany) -- History -- 1918-1945. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85013349
Genre/Form Diaries.
Author Stern, James, 1904-1993.
LC no. 11914323