This chronicle was begun on the day when Berlin first saw the face of war.
-- A Woman In Berlin: Eight Weeks In The Conquered City
What would the face of war be like? Sounds like a good art project. The book is by an anonymous thirty-something German woman in publishing (later discovered to be "a professional journalist, [who] made a name for herself as a Nazi propagandist"), writing a diary from mid-April to mid-June 1945. I found out about it since it was made into a movie, which I never did watch. It is available on this free (at least on a trial basis) movie website, but too large to download for the basic rate. Another movie was available, but without subtitles.*
It starts with her dealing with the last days of the war, often in a basement war bunker. Soon enough Russians are there, along with rape, short term "protectors" (helped by her knowledge of Russian), later some hard labor, and ending with an uncertain future (ironically, the return of her fiance had a negative connotation). The book did not do well in its first printing, the forward to the edition printed after the author's death noting Germans were not open to its blunt realism. The hardships of war through a woman's point of view, particularly the harshness of rape and choices she made to find someone to make her "taboo" from random rape (and supply some food as well) in particular.
It is a striking read. Only on the Wikipedia page (and apparently in the movie to some extent) do we get a hint that she might have herself been a Nazi enabler, though a bit of insight would suggest a publishing firm would probably somehow have such connections. Likewise, there is a bit of her relationship with a woman married to someone involved in the armament industry. But, the book basically is an account of an educated woman, who has traveled around, dealing with the result of the defeat of her nation. Such accounts are must reading to truly understand war.
"Anonymous" is a fitting author as well.
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* A third foreign film with subtitles was available for free. A charming romantic drama entitled Owl and the Sparrow:
In modern-day Saigon, three lonely strangers form a unique family as a ten-year old orphan plays matchmaker to a zookeeper and a beautiful flight attendant.
On the free front, I realized that apparently every episode (at least most of them) of the old series Major Dad is available over at IMDB. Gung ho Marine marries lib mom with three daughters. A cute sitcom that I liked back in the day (it dealt with the first Gulf War). High speed Internet has benefits.