Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 [Paperback]

Marie Vassiltchikov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 12, 1988

The secret diaries of a twenty-three-year-old White Russian princess who worked in the German Foreign Office from 1940 to 1944 and then as a nurse, these pages give us a unique picture of wartime life in that sector of German society from which the 20th of July Plot -- the conspiracy to kill Hitler -- was born.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Vassiltchikov, who died in 1978, kept a diary of her work at the German Foreign Ministry and with the underground resistance movement during WW II. "A remarkable document alive with history, passion and truth," praised PW, "her clear-eyed account of life in wartime Germany is gripping." Photos.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A Russian emigre princess, Vassiltchikov (1917-78) arrived in Berlin soon after the outbreak of World War II. This secret diary is replete with graphic descriptions of what life was like during those increasingly desperate times when saturation bombings, fire storms, and food shortages became the terrible norm. Of exceptional interest, too, are the entries pertaining to her close ties with those who attempted to assassinate Hitler in the "July Plot." This absorbing personal account of Berlin's Gotterdammerung represents a valauble opportunity to understand World War II from the perspective of Germany's courageous civilian population. Though no less brave than Londoners, Berliners suffered far more. Highly recommended for most libraries. Mark R. Yerburgh, Trinity Coll. Lib., Burlington, Vt.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; First Vintage Books Edition edition (June 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394757777
• ISBN-13: 978-0394757773
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book - must read for anyone interest in this era., January 11, 2003

By 

"lerichards2" (WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 (Paperback)

Don't listen to the review below. Yes, Missie did party and drink and dine, but only at the beginning of the book, when WWII was still called "the Phony War". She was a refugee from her country, a princess, who had to leave Lithuania because of Soviet rule. She can't seem to, at first, give up her lavish lifestyle of parties and such, but she never complains when it is time to give up that lifestyle. She and her sister run out of money, have to take care of their family, but they never complain. I would love to see a modern day aristocrat adapt the way Missie does.

Also, the parties that Missie attends are hosted or attended by some of the most powerful and influential people during the second world war.

Later on though, she is bombed out of house and home... the true reality of living in Germany under the constant destruction, fires, bombing, low flying "enemy" planes, and never being able to go back to how you once lived shines through. She is not a Nazi, she hates the Reich, and gives a great unbiased account of what it was like to live in Berlin during the war. It is a perspective that you've never heard before.

She is friends and co-worker of many of those who attempted to kill Hitler, and supports them. She watches as people she loves and respects are thrown into jail and killed for being associated with those who tried to kill Hitler, and grieves that he wasn't killed.

This is a great book. I've read as many books as I can about the holocaust experience from a Jewish perspective, and though Missie doesn't mention the Jews hardly at all (they shielded the Berliners from what was going on in the death camps) this is still a great book for me. The way the Jew were killed is horrid, and this sounds bad, I don't mean it, but WWII was more than that, believe it or not. She tells a different point of view.

I've read it about 3 times, I am now on my fourth. It is fascinating to watch as Missie changes from aristocrat to a red cross nurse, trying to survive as best she can.

get this book. You won't regret it. It is a true sotry of the death of everyone's lives in Europe because of the war.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bombs, plots and Total War, February 20, 2004

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 (Paperback)

Missie Vassiltchikov was an aristocratic Russian who was living in Berlin at the beginning of World War 2. At the time the war started Missie was a habitué of the diplomatic party circuit and friends with many of the German aristocrats of her parents class.

Missie, through her experiences in exile valued people on their own intrinsic worth and not based on their nationality and she proved to be a good judge of character. Many of her German friends were involved in the 20th July 1944 plot to kill Hitler and finish the war. Missy herself was lucky to escape the death squads that combed Germany afterwards and her diary chronicles the deaths of many of her close friends. It also clearly portrays the horror of living under the allied air raids against civilians, especially in Berlin, in the closing years against WW2 where luck, rather than good judgement, was a more assured method of survival.

Missie brings home the fact that "total war" is a horror for all involved and that there were 'good guys' and 'bad guys' on both sides of the conflict, but in the end it was the ordinary civilians who paid the greatest price for the folly of their leaders. Possibly one of the areas that is an eye opener is the closing days of the war. An area little touched on in movies or documentaries. We get to see some of the human costs of the disgraceful Yalta agreement that the allies signed with Stalin and the starvation and ruin that prevailed in Europe the years after the war. For a civilian insight into the war on the continent this book is first class along with her sister Titania's autobiography.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, August 15, 2001

By 

Anglo Jackson (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945 (Paperback)

Missie Vassiltchikov's diary is the outstanding source for anyone who wants to achieve any sort of historical empathy with the German aristocracy during the war years. As a diary rather than a memoir we feel the horror of the bombs, or of the regime, at an extraordinary proximity; as a White Russian and not a German patriot, her criticism takes less for granted and, by witnessing everything on a personal level, the acute sensations of terror and loss are not diluted by blood and guts patriotism. An extraordinary woman in extraordinary times the result is a historical source acknowledged by A. J. P. Taylor to be of first rate importance and a testament to the bravery of the German patriots who tried to carry out the July 1944 coup of incredible dignity and persuasion. Having read these diaries I will never again tolerate being told that the July plotters were nothing but a nasty military junta in embryo. Wonderful stuff.