Written By: Anonymous
Translated By: Philip Boehm
Published By: Metropolitan Books
A Woman in Berlin tells the story of, well, an anonymous woman in Berlin during one of the most brutal periods of human history. World War II is drawing to a close as Russians besiege the city from the east. The civilians, many of whom are women, hide away within their homes in a desperate attempt to protect themselves while awaiting salvation from the Fuhrer that will never come. Bombs explode, walls collapse, windows shatter, and many innocent people die. The woman, for whom we will hereafter call Anonymous, scribbles away in her notebook as the city crumbles around her, giving us a first-hand account of Berlin’s transition from protected city to smoldering rubble.
It’s not pretty.
From the very outset, the incoming Russian invasion is tempered with fear. Apartments and businesses alike are crushed by the same indiscriminate missile payloads day after day after day. Thousands of people, mostly women and children, are displaced from their homes in one fashion or another—many have fled to the shelter of the West, while those less fortunate have found unlikely alliances with neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers as they seek out suitably dark hiding places that are often underground. Rumors circulate both by whispers and by words about the fates of those unfortunate to be caught in the midst of the onslaught, ostensibly created to inspire what few brave German men remain to take up arms and defend the Fatherland to the death.
Anonymous is skeptical of the rumors’ intended effects, going so far as to call headlines regarding violence and rape ridiculous. She states that “their only effect is to send thousands more helpless women and children running out of town, jamming the roads heading west, where they’re likely to starve or die under fire from enemy planes. (5)” There is a sense here that the war has already been lost, the Russians are coming, and no one—man or otherwise—will be able to stop them. Further driving this skepticism is a sequence regarding salvation from ‘that man’ (as we now call A.H.). When an elderly gentleman from the neighborhood only called ‘Siegismund’ comes onto the scene, talking about how the Fuhrer will save them all because he has some kind of plan, the other residents only exchange awkward glances as he rambles on. No one bothers to argue with him; in fact, no one says anything at all because “who wants to argue with a madman? Besides, madmen can be dangerous. (12)”
This skepticism devolves into apathy as the bombing and gunfire continues. Anonymous witnesses some German soldiers pitifully marching toward the front, looking listless and tired. She looks on for a bit, but can no longer bear to watch them as they trudge toward a bitter end. Over the next day or so, this apathy evolves into full blown resentment as the civilians discuss how they’d be better off if “[Hitler’s] old lady’d had a miscarriage. (28)” All that is left up to this point is to wait out the storm and resolve to remain intact both in mind and in body, for no man could apparently save them from this doom.
When the Russians finally arrive and set up their base camp throughout the ruins, there is a very brief but very interesting shift in Anonymous’ observations that seems to endure throughout at least the first 100 pages of A Woman in Berlin, although subdued more in some parts than in others. The Ivans milling about the base camp appear at first to be quite the fascinating lot. “Some Russians are wheeling freshly stolen bicycles up and down the driveway. They’re teaching one another to ride, on their seats as stiffly as Susi the bicycle-riding chimpanzee in the zoo. They crash into the trees and laugh with pleasure… It turns out that Russian men, too, are ‘only men.’ (47)”
There is almost a flair of innocence going on with these Russians; the lot of them seem to be merely boys with a newfound freedom to do whatever they please. Usually this means finding all the liquor and looting as much cool stuff as possible. Interestingly, the Russians feel compelled to loot watches more than other things, often covering both arms with these spoils. But freedom in the hands of someone who may not deserve it can turn that someone mad indeed and, as Anonymous has already pointed out, a madman can be very dangerous.
This is when things begin to go sour, when the innocence quickly fades away. Anonymous is raped several times over many nights by many people in many places. Needless to say, her spirit is dampened considerably when the Russian authorities on the scene refuse to help condemn the perpetrators of these vile acts, and doubly so when her compatriots all but refuse to intervene. The papers apparently weren’t all wrong, and the attacks on her person are nothing less than savage. She resorts to her feminine wiles and primal know-how to fend off the pack, to survive, to not let herself be destroyed by the Ivans. She is reasonably successful in this regard as she seeks out an officer named Anatol who serves as a sort of protective alpha male.
Although this doesn’t mean her outlook is getting much better, it does afford her enough protection to focus her account of the Russian presence and her experience with the Russian conquerors. As things settle down (relatively speaking), the Ivans turn the flat into a kind of mess hall conference room. She sees many different Russians come and go, and though many seem to be crude barbarians, she is also astonished to find some adept individuals in their midst. Individuals such as the placid young Vanya who is nothing but a child, who says, “We humans are all bad. Me, too, I’ve done bad things; (76)” Schoolteacher/chess player Andrei, who likes a good debate now and then; and even Major –ovich So-and-So, who is dapper if not a little clumsy and forward. Her apprehension ebbs and flows like the tides as one shade of gray after the next steps forward to make his claim, either by earnestness or by force.
At the time A Woman in Berlin was written, men and women shared entirely different roles in society. Men were generally manly, fighting in wars and driving tanks and doing the butchery and taming the dogs and running the factories and protecting the women. Women were generally expected to stay at home and maybe pursue an education or wash dishes or clean the carpets and support the men. The events seen in this book clearly shattered those roles, leaving countless women and children stranded with nothing but their wits to see them through. During the fall of Berlin, it wasn’t men who offered protection; it was men who offered to plunder. The women were forced to make choices that would benefit their survival or risk losing everything. The men in the war, the men who stayed home, and the men invading the city are not regarded amiably in any sense of the word. A lot of things could be said about any camp actually, but given the events of past and present for A Woman in Berlin, one feeling trumps all: the feeling of disappointment in the men who on both sides are sworn to protect the weak, the old, and the feeble.
ThomFiles 