Why am I passionate about this?
When I was six years old, my Dutch relatives visited. Stories swirled about their bravery in getting secrets from the Germans and sharing the intel with the Allies, about their privation during the hunger winter, and their work hiding their Jewish countrymen. I studied abroad in 1977-1978 and took the opportunity to visit my Dutch relatives. They told me more stories of their resistance work, their escapades, and, most importantly, their “why” during my time with them. Such stories don’t leave you–ever. They percolated in my head for years until a voice came to me, Rika’s voice, and I began to write. Sixty Blades of Grass is the result.
Elizabeth's book list on WWII Resistance and Survival in europe
Why did Elizabeth love this book?
Berlin is under siege. Those who have not left cannot escape. Bombs rain down, water is scarce, and food is more so.
A woman strives to survive the Russian soldiers out to avenge their losses by offering everything in exchange for their protection. You feel the cold, the fear in the basements, the terror of bombs, and the triumph of the human spirit to put the worst of the worst aside and continue to live. I loved the raw triumph of surviving.
6 authors picked A Woman in Berlin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. "With bald honesty and brutal lyricism" (Elle), the anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. "Spare and unpredictable, minutely observed and utterly free of self-pity" (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland), A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the…