Eine Frau in Berlin

The documentary resources and the huge bibliography available worldwide regarding WWII and the period shortly after could offer the illusion that we know almost everything. Almost daily, if not weekly, we are reading information related to these events, still shoking for the Western European conscience. But, it could be almost similar to the sources available for the communism. In the period after the Cold War, as well as before, it is an infinite depository of knowledge regarding the smallest details related to this period. As for the communist regimes themselves, it's still not a satisfactory answer at the question how it was possible, despite the analysis and the experts, to predict the end of these regimes.

The diary of a young German woman experiencing three months - 20 April - 22 June 1945 - in the Berlin under the Russian occupation is a moving testimony and a living history of the new start of Germany. They are individual history of starvation, rapes by the Red Army soldiers, corpses lying in the remnants of buildings or on the street and destroyed houses. About the hurry to change the masters and the need to survive because, as in Curzio Malaparte's books, what matter for the human being is its "skin". The rest, is discussion at a warm cup of coffee. They are not too many stories as such and the author, by now, remains anonymous; we know she was an educated woman, who took her inner distance towards the Nazi regime, traveling often abroad and managing foreign languages - among which the knowledge of Russian will be a benefit. The Red Army entered many Eastern and Central European countries. They are stories already entered in the common memory about the high number of watches they used to ornate their hands, plus some additional alarm clocks hanging up on their chest. In the book, the author is simply explaining that in their country they are lacking the basic needs to have one for themselves. About the food they were using in huge quantities and, of course, the vodka instead of water.

But rape is another story. The instability of the feelings in these tormented times is impressive. First, they were the hordes of soldiers on the streets of what was once Berlin, treating any individual of feminine gender as a sexual object, with the exception of very very old and pregnant women. After not seeing each other long times, the first words exchanged were: "How many times?". Shortly, the women themselves decided that, in order to be safe, they needed to find a high ranking protector. The word is quite appropriate, because once the decision was taken, the woman is going on the street and the first who's more than a soldier will be her protector, offering not only safety of the assaults of other soldiers, but also food. The general feeling is that these times will never end and they "will continue to search for in the ruins as rats the rest" their lives. It's hard to imagine this now if we think about the powerful Berlin we're used to know, but it was the daily life only 64 years ago.

What you should read this book: As a testimony in itself, witnessing three months in the aftermath of the end of a regime who made millions of victims. It is history made up of various human histories, beyond the political ones. And, I think, I just discovered a definitory character of a historian: he/she needs to be coolblooded. Almost at every stage of the human histories, you have tons of accounts about death, war, conflicts, victims - innocent or not. Trying to put yourself in their skin will change you into a fanatic or a nut. Distance and reason, after understanding you constant starting point, are the constant ingredients for writing a good piece of academic work, whatever painful and bloody your theme is.