A Woman in Berlin

Marta lived through WWII in Berlin, and writes bravely and without shame of what it was like to survive the eight weeks at the end of the War when Berlin was captured by the Soviets, and what she had to do to survive. Some women were able to hide out in crawl spaces but she had no one to help bring her whatever meager food or water could be found; she had to find a way to survive with no help, and she did, and she writes with truth her experiences. The smell of rotting corpses, the hunger, not having any control over what may happen to her in this new world of defeat, but living in the moment the best she could, which meant hunting for nettles to eat, finding a Soviet “protector” so that she at least could be raped by only one man rather than multiple, random men and perhaps even get some bread or wine out of it. Well-written, moving, important story to read.