A Woman in Berlin

At times this is hard to read, but it gives such an immediate view of what happened when the Russians "liberated" Berlin that it is worth reading. What happens to women in war is, unfortunately, still a timely topic.

They're fifteen years old at the most, standing there looking so skinny and small in their billowing uniform tunics. Why are we so appalled at the thought of children being murdered? In three or four years the same children strike us as perfectly fit for shooting and maiming. Where do you draw the line? When their voices break? Because that's what really gets me the most, thinking about these little boys: their voices, so high, so bright. Up to now being a soldier meant being a man.

It is hardly remarkable that one of the best personal records of the war in Germany is a diary kept by a woman. After all, it was the women who preserved an oasis of sanity in a world run amok. While the men were fighting a murderous war, the women proved to be true heroines of survival. To the extent that a German resistance existed, women provided the logistics. And when their husbands and lovers returned, paralyzed by defeat, it was women who cleared the rubble.