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A Woman in Berlin
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Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “May”
Part 2, Chapters 1-8 Summary
Just like every other day, the kitchen in the apartment soon fills with Russian soldiers. Anatol delivers a speech for May Day, ending with “a roguish wink” (66). Marta feels sore, and the widow gives her the remnants of a tub of Vaseline. Marta thinks about what sex has meant to her in the past, and she feels lucky that she has known it to be a joyful, loving act. Around noon, Marta defuses an incident during which Russian soldiers threaten a German couple. Marta helps translate and resolves the issue without violence. The Russians insist that Marta explain to her neighbors that if any weapons are found in their possession, the Russians will burn the building to the ground. Marta is pleased with her ability to help, even if she would rather stay out of conflicts.
On Wednesday 2 May, Marta doctors her diary, adding pages of Russian and German words to disguise it as a translation guide. The women of Berlin are prepared for the Russian men’s nightly excursions, and they begin to hide. Not all of the Russians are violent, however, and a small group brings food to the older women of the apartment building. Anatol’s men throw a raucous party in the widow’s apartment; the blond lieutenant appears with a major, who seems to be polite and respectful. They drink champagne and talk about politics, and Marta worries that she is being recruited for a military translation role. The lieutenant asks Marta whether she finds the major pleasant, whether she could love him. She learns that Anatol has been transferred. The lieutenant, the major, and the major’s orderly ask to stay the night, and, unable to say no, Marta joins the major in her bedroom. He shows Marta his identification papers and goes to great lengths to treat her politely, but Marta feels as though she is being passed around the various officers. She bursts into tears, and he tries to comfort her, and “he is gentle and silently tender, is soon finished and lets [Marta] sleep” (74). He is still there when she wakes up, and they talk more. The major and his orderly leave. The widow tells Marta that she has heard that Berlin surrendered during the night, but there is no peace, only more fighting in the city. As Marta fetches water, she hears Germans talking about what they have done to survive and to hide their wives, sisters, and daughters from the Russians. Marta arranges for the bookseller’s wife to perform a sewing chore for two Russian soldiers in exchange for bread. As she sews, the bookseller’s wife talks about some women who have taken up residence with Russian soldiers and another woman who has committed suicide. Marta meets a Polish solider in the Russian army who helps her pump water. The soldier is prone to fits of anger ever since he took a bullet to the head at Stalingrad.
On Thursday 3 May, Petka’s unit moves on. One of the major’s men, a young boy of 18 dressed in a navy uniform, asks Marta to find him a “nice clean girl, respectable and kind” (80). She declines to help him, but he seems so young and innocent that she cannot be angry with him. Marta believes that the unbridled raping sprees are over. Many women, like Marta, have come to arrangements with Russians. They offer sex for food, supplies, and safety. The major with whom Martha has an arrangement is so polite and generous that Marta struggles with their relationship. She does not know if she can define their sexual interaction as rape, but she knows it is not a loving relationship. She feels that he wants her less for sex than human companionship, but she wonders whether she should consider herself a prostitute. The major visits again that evening, and he shows Marta family photographs and talks about his life. When he asks Marta about her own life, she tries to be evasive. Russian men seem impressed by her education, Marta understands, unlike their German equivalents, and that night, Marta sleeps well.
On the evening of 3 May, Marta writes by candlelight, having received the candles from the major. She reflects on the questions from Russian men looking for women; all the German women Marta knows are either in hiding or already connected to a Russian soldier. One woman, whom Marta believes to be a lesbian, has successfully disguised herself as a man. The rapes have not stopped, but the Germans now speak about them with a dark humor. Anatol appears and seems in good spirits; he claims that Soviet flags are flying over Berlin’s most important buildings. Anatol asks about the major but Marta dismisses the question. In turn, he assures her that he has not “touched any girl in Berlin” (86) but Marta. He finally leaves at 3am, and Marta cannot shake the feeling that she is being spied upon.
When the major arrives the next morning, Marta lies to him and says that nothing occurred between Anatol and herself. She worries what will happen if the two men ever meet. He gives her a gift of candies and then leaves, promising to return. Their interaction is a reminder to Marta that the Russians are “our masters” (87). She is no longer certain that she can control the major. Anatol arrives in the afternoon for what he claims is his last visit. As he sits on the bed with Marta, the bedroom door bursts open, and the widow runs in, chased by the Polish soldier with the bullet wound in his head. The soldier is attempting to rape the widow; Anatol tries to ignore the situation, and the Pole leads the widow from the room. Anatol leaves a short time later. The widow recovers from her anger at Marta, telling her that the Pole actually became quite timid toward the end of their interaction. Another older woman is raped on a stairwell, and a young girl briefly escapes her hiding place only to be raped by two Russians. Andrei also visits to say goodbye. Later, the major arrives, and he plays a harmonica and dances skillfully. The movement causes his injured knee to swell, and Marta spends a sleepless night lying next to the man.
On Saturday 5 May, Marta eats well while the widow talks of a dark future. Marta only wants to live as well as she can in the moment, otherwise she will “collapse like a wet rag” (90). Together with the widow and the widow’s lodger and the Russian soldiers in the apartment, Marta discusses the future of Germany. Amid the stories circulating among the Germans, few involve German men defending German women. An older soldier shares stories about his own children, while the younger soldier tells of how German soldiers in Russia murdered babies and other children. He claims to have seen these murders himself, but the German women do not believe him. The conversation comes to an awkward end.
The major again spends the night, and Marta is almost thankful for his presence; a real sense of fear is in the air, even though the war seems over. The next day, after he leaves, the widow takes Marta upstairs, where a resident of the building has returned from the fighting. He was hiding in the distillery where he worked alongside a girl named Elvira. The Russians found them and gangraped Elvira, who sits silently in the upstairs apartment. Marta can describe the bruises on the woman’s body. Marta spends the afternoon cleaning the apartment before the major returns.
On Monday 7 May, Marta wakes up beside the major. He tells her a story about two German women who are working as prostitutes. They have become very popular with the Russian soldiers, who dote on one of the women’s three-year-old son. The boy already knows several Russian words. Marta remembers the time she kept a diary in her teenage years, a time which coincided with hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis. Later that day, a girl named Frieda visits from the other side of the city. Frieda is the friend of a girl who was married to the widow’s nephew, who was killed in the war. Neither Frieda nor the pregnant wife of the nephew have been raped, but they need food. Marta and the widow share what they can. After Frieda leaves, Marta and the widow begin to think about who they could visit in the city, and this possibility becomes more realistic when the major brings them a bicycle. Marta rides through the city and sees the devastation, and she passes Russian graves and places from her past; the ride thrills her nevertheless. The major stays until early evening and, after he leaves, Marta cries. She scribbles a note in the margin, something “to be used by novelists” (98).
Part 2, Chapters 9-20 Summary
On Tuesday 8 May, Marta recalls the dead body she and the widow find while fetching water the day before. They try and fail to identify the man. When they return to the apartment, neighbors tell them that all of the Russians have left the city. Marta notices the eerie silence for the first time. She looks at the women around her and understands that they have all suffered a collective pain and hardship; they can speak about it together and share their pain.
That evening, the major and his orderly appear. The major’s knee injury has led him to develop a fever. He keeps Marta up all night. During the night, the orderly, who likely suffers from dysentery, makes a terrible mess in the bathroom. Marta cleans it up. The following morning, Marta hears that peace has been declared. She thinks about the men who have returned from the front and of deserters and casualties. These men now fear that their Nazi past may lead to future recriminations. Marta knows that she will not be able to tell the men what the German women have endured. She talks to one German man, a hunchback and a former communist, about what will happen after the war. The widow begins to clean her house, and the neighborhood groups together, pitching in to help the baker bake bread. The men try to locate guns and fail.
Marta wakes up on Wednesday 9 May a quiet night. At 10am, the major visits. He has come to say goodbye; his injured knee means that he is being placed on two months leave. He takes Marta’s address and asks for a photograph, but she has none to give him. After he leaves, Marta realizes that no one will bring them any more food. She walks through the neighborhood, past the destruction and the graves. The widow worries that they will starve. That evening, a fire breaks out, but no water is available so the people use rubble and debris to put it out. Marta takes a blow to the head while helping.
The next day, Marta and the widow decide to visit a different part of Berlin. They walk through the devastated city and see very few people. The people that they do see are desperately trying to salvage what they can. They arrive at a house belonging to the widow’s friend, and Marta and the widow enter. The woman shares her experience; she was raped once, the Russians left quickly, and the Germans survived by eating the meat of a horse killed in the fighting. Next, Marta and the widow visit one of Marta’s friends, Gisela. They discover that Gisela has taken in two girls, refugees who were raped by the Russians; they now sit in horrified silence. One cries often, the other has become a bitter cynic. Gisela herself escaped the Russians’ attentions by disguising herself as an old woman. The sadness of the girls reminds Marta of her own fumbling teenage moments of love, a joyful experience which has been denied to these girls. Marta and the widow return home after a sad day.
On Friday 11 May, Marta helps with the housework. They receive new ration cards. Public support of Hitler has waned, and Marta ponders whether she was ever a supporter. What is clear, she says, is that “I was there, that I breathed what was in the air, and it affected all of us even if we didn’t want it to” (114).
The building residents dig a pit in the garden to bury their garbage. They seem happy to be doing something useful. In the afternoon, Gisela and the two girls visit. Marta listens to Gisela explain that she sees little hope for the future. After they leave, Marta has a quiet evening. She tries to read a book.
Sunday 13 May is a “glorious summer day” (118); bells ring across the city to celebrate the Allied victory, but the people of Berlin worry that their homes will be requisitioned by the government. Marta wonders if the Russians could have committed so many rapes without the aid of alcohol. During a quiet evening, Marta counts the ways in which she is lucky. She thinks about all the various places she has visited, including Moscow.
On Monday 14 May, the baker resumes baking bread in large quantities. People queue merrily, chatting to one another. A bulletin is posted, describing Germany’s surrender. The building residents gather together to empty the basement shelter once and for all. Afterward, Marta eats dinner with the widow and her lodger and begins to feel as though they believe her to be a burden. She wants to support herself but does not know how.
Marta reports to the local government building on Tuesday 15 May. As she enters, she sees a man removing the statue of Hitler from the lobby. In the dark corridors, she overhears women exchange stories of rape and loss. A government official tells Marta that her linguistic skills mean that she is needed as an interpreter, and so she returns home to study. She notices that many of the building’s other residents are returning to normal life, including the girl who disguised herself as a man. Marta discusses this woman’s love life with a neighbor, with “no judgement, no[r] verdict” (123) though they suspect she is gay.
The next day, Wednesday 16 May, Marta reports to her new job and meets the Russian commandant. She watches as a string of people meet the commandant and petition him with requests. He explains that he aims to return life to normal as quickly as possible. He assigns Marta to help a lieutenant who is inspecting the district’s banks. She is happy to do something other than fetch water all day. They visit the mayor to collect a list of banks, and then Marta and the sub-lieutenant, whom she considers handsome and polite, begin to visit each bank. Some are looted, but some are ready to reopen. As they walk, Marta discovers that the Russian also speaks French, and for a short time, their stilted conversation becomes more flowing. After visiting the final bank, they sit for a moment on a garden wall. Marta is impressed by the man’s manners and his tact; the Russians she meets are either exceedingly polite or the opposite. She learns that the sub-lieutenant’s name is Nikolai, and they arrange to meet later in the day. He arrives late, and they talk a short while before arranging to meet again.
At her building, Marta and the other residents discuss the post-war German economy. She becomes certain that the widow’s lodger resents her presence, but her recent meetings with Nikolai keep her in the widow’s favor. A local high-ranking Nazi has been caught by the Russians, and Marta wonders how she should feel about the incident.
On Friday 18 May, Marta rises early to search for firewood. She receives her new ration card. She is in the lowest priority group, but she wonders whether she can improve her standing. Everyone seems happier that a sense of order is returning. Marta accompanies a neighbor to the town hall. This neighbor’s daughter was involved in a youth Nazi program, and she hopes that Marta can ward off any future problems with her Russian language skills. In the corridors, the women talk about pregnancies, abortions, and venereal diseases. There is no issue with the neighbor’s daughter. At home, the neighbors share horror stories of rape and murder.
The next day, the residents use their new ration cards and clean the house. The water pipes become functional, so they no longer have to carry buckets to the pump. Despite this progress, the sense of community among the residents which was forged during the difficult period is “gradually eroding” (134). Neighbors gossip, sharing stories of affairs.
Part 2, Chapters 21-33 Summary
Marta describes 20 May as “a glorious day” (136). It is Pentecost, so many people go out to socialize. Marta returns to her upstairs apartment and begins to clear through the rubble. She tries to rest but feels a sense of unease, as though she should be doing more with herself. Nikolai does not arrive at the arranged time, and Marta doubts that she will ever see him again.
Few people in the city have jobs, but Marta sees a flyer calling for those who worked in publishing and similar fields to report to the town hall. She registers with the authorities and eats a lunch of preserved chicken that tastes of mothballs. That afternoon, Marta crosses the city to visit Ilse, an old friend. She passes through the deserted city only to discover that her friend’s house appears to be empty. Finally, Marta slips in with another tenant and knocks on Ilse’s door. They embrace warmly and share stories of the times they were raped. As they talk, Ilse’s husband steps outside as he “can’t really bear to hear about that” (138). Marta and Ilse agree that the Russians’ erotic efforts were unimpressive. Their conversation confirms Marta’s belief that women are handling the defeat better than men. Marta leaves, stopping on the way home to visit the widow’s friend.
The widow is summoned to the town hall to be assigned work. She leaves early in the morning, and Marta stays at home, only to hear a makeshift town crier demand that every person between the ages of 15-55 report to the town hall for labor duty. Marta is one of the few who adheres to the instruction. Mostly women turn up at the town hall, and their names are taken; Marta is given manual labor to do the next day, and she is happy to feel useful again. The widow does not return until 9pm, and she arrives with tools smuggled in her dress; she has spent an exhausting day packing crates in a warehouse. She is disgusted at the Russians’ lack of organization and wonders how they won the war.
On the morning of Wednesday 23 May, Marta goes to the town hall in the rain. With a hundred other women, she shovels dirt and debris until the afternoon. At home, the widow is weeping. She has convinced herself that she has contracted syphilis. Marta thinks they will have to go to the hospital. She needs to go herself, as she is “one day late” (143).
The next day, Marta wakes up early to shovel dirt in the rain. The women are interrupted and led to a factory where they are told to collect whatever brass they can find and place it into crates. After a brief pause for lunch, they get back to work. At 8pm, they are dismissed. At home, the widow says that she visited the doctor who told her she does not have syphilis.
On Friday 25 May, Marta goes to work again. She and the others pass German prisoners, who are also doing hard labor, before returning to the factory hall. At first, Marta strips metal from the factory; later, she and another woman do laundry. Russian soldiers loiter nearby as Marta and another woman scrub until their hands are raw. After stopping for lunch, they work until 8pm. Marta returns home exhausted, knowing she has laundry duty again the next day.
Marta returns to the worksite the next day and joins two other women on washing duty. They eat at lunchtime, and the women avoid discussing “how often it had happened to them” (148). They scrub laundry all afternoon and sneak away from work at 7pm. Marta returns home, but knows that she will have to work again the next day.
Marta describes Sunday 27 May as “a long, bleak and weary day […] the longest Sunday of my life” (150). She works all day in the factory. The women talk until they hear a low, droning singing. They work until 8pm, removing zinc ingots from the factory and loading them onto a freight train. Marta trudges home, and the widow fixes her dinner. Electricity has returned to the building. Now that the radios work again, the people of Berlin hear about the millions of people who have been cremated in the Nazi death camps. Afterward, they play Beethoven, and the music moves Marta to tears.
On Monday 28 May, Marta is back on laundry duty. Russian soldiers pinch and harass the washerwomen. They repeat their familiar offer of “bacon and eggs, sleep at your home” (152) to the women, but few women show interest. Marta gets to know her fellow workers; they watch out for one another whenever one needs the toilet, not trusting the Russians to leave them in peace. Marta returns home and spends time by herself, thinking that she might want to attend a church service next Sunday. She feels “hopelessly alone” (153).
Marta spends Tuesday 29 May on laundry duty again. Someone steals an item of clothing from the washing line, and she sees the theft as indicative of typical Russian behavior because “thieving has deep roots among these people” (154). The soldiers continue to pester the women for sex. The women recite songs and poetry together to pass the time. When Marta arrives home in the evening, she finds that the widow and her lodger have lost patience with her. Marta packs her things and returns to the little apartment at the top of the building.
Wednesday 30 May is Marta’s last day on laundry duty. The Russians seem to be preparing to depart. She discovers that one soldier is supposedly in love with her; he speaks perfect German and follows her around all day. When the washerwomen break for food, they join the others in the canteen, where a rumor is spreading that they will not be paid for their work. That evening, the women are told that they will be able to collect their pay from the town hall next week. Marta bids farewell to her fellow washerwomen.
On Thursday 31 May, Marts begins her “solitary hungry existence in the attic apartment” (158). She has no supplies beyond her meagre rations. As she writes in her diary, she feels lightheaded. As she cleans her rooms, she realizes that the workmen repairing the building have been stealing her property. She resolves to give them a piece of her mind. Rent is not collected in May.
Part 2 Analysis
The month of May is as different for the people of Berlin as April was to the preceding months. After the initial rush of violence and rape which accompanied the final days of the war and the takeover of Berlin, the occupying soldiers and the people of the city settle into a different dynamic. Rape and violence continue, but these incidents are no longer presented as a mad fever dream. Instead, the Russians become an occupying army. They settle in and create bureaucracies and systems.
Marta notes that the German people appreciate the restoration of order, but this order comes at a great cost. The violence of the Russians, like the social systems, becomes regulated and controlled. Russian officers and high-ranking men begin to select and protect certain women. When Marta becomes the ‘property’ of a selection of important military figures, including Anatol and the major, Marta herself becomes taboo. In this situation, she is forced into sex by the invading army, but the crime takes the form of a seemingly mutual arrangement. The major visits at set times and follows a routine, and his gifts of food and cigars justify his actions. To the Russian men, this arrangement is mutually beneficial, but to the German women, the arrangement ensures that they have enough food to eat and that the enlisted men will not attack them impulsively. In effect, the arrangement is the only means they have of staying alive. This new systematic approach to rape is less chaotic but no less insidious. Just as the Russians seek to restore electricity, running water, and jobs, they seek to fashion an order out of the sexual violence which they have brought with them.
Marta does not present her situation as unrelentingly morose. Instead, she describes moments of joy during which she is able to experience fleeting escapes from her horrific situations. When the major brings a bicycle to the house, for example, she begs him for a chance to ride it. Reluctantly, he obliges. Marta rides the bike through the devastated city, and though she witnesses unmitigated horror wherever she goes, the very act of riding the bicycle gives her a rush of positive emotion. Riding the bicycle frees her momentarily by providing her with a sense of agency and direction. It allows Marta to feel for a few moments as if she has control. Also positive is the affection Marta begins to develop for the major. Their relationship is undoubtedly built on coercion and unwanted sexual advances, but Marta presents the situation as complex. For example, she appreciates his manners, and she cries when he leaves. Though her situation seems akin to something like Stockholm syndrome, she takes pains to point out that the major treats her decently, unlike other men in similar situations. While this observation might seem nuanced, the essential meaning emphasizes the extreme suffering faced by other women in the city. Most Russian man are unlike the major, and part of Marta’s affection for him stems from comparing herself to women who have suffered more than she.
Even then, Marta’s relationship with emotional honesty is complicated. When writing her diary, she tries hard to remain objective, but her subjective experience is compelling, both to her as a writer and to the reader as a witness. Marta attempts to write as if she were a narrator of a story, and she describes the practical realities of life under occupation. She states bold facts about rape, for example, and she and the women of Berlin are brutally honest with one another and, by extension, with the reader. When Marta must leave the widow’s apartment, she explains that her diary becomes stained with her tears, breaking the façade of her objective narrative technique. Though Marta consistently tries to present a tough and enduring face to the world, she feels hopelessly alone. She is a sympathetic, engaging narrator because she confides the raw truth of her hardship to the reader. Among the realistic, brutal depictions of her life, these brief, fleeting moments of emotional honesty have even more emotional weight due to their infrequency.
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