Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Good.......2007-03-11

This is a good book. Not like other diaries I've read. Had to hold your interest but it's a true diary.

An view from the fiery depths of Hitler's capital........2006-11-21

"The Berlin Diaries" by Marie Vassiltchikov is an account of wartime Germany from the vantage point of a young White Russian aristocrat. Although not a native German, Ms. Vassiltchikov and her sister penetrated the upper echelons of German society--the surnames of those who they socialize with read like a "Who's Who Among Central Europeon Royalty." Despite their privileged lifestyle, the Vassiltchikov sisters are not insulated from the trappings of the war raging around them: their acquaintances die in battle, they experience rationing, cold offices, nurse duty, and most memorable of all, the punishing bombings of Berlin.

If the suspense of who will live and perish around Ms. Vassiltchikov were not enough, many of her coworkers in the Abwehr are secret anti-Nazis and were thus implicated with varying roles in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate der Fuehrer with a breifcase bomb. Her writings provide an excellent insider's glimpse of the German Resistance and will force any reader to sympathize with Vassiltchikov; even if they see her as "the enemy" as a result of her residence in Nazi Germany.

The book's readability is a final strength that I will mention. Ms. Vassiltchikov's diary entries are often interrupted by factual passages from the editors, one of which was her brother. These passages explain the course of the war at that particular entry and thus renders the diary easily understandable for those with even a limited knowledge on the Second World War. Even as a frequent reader of World War II, I thoroughly enjoyed "The Berlin Diaries," and so did my co-workers who care little for military history or the time-period. The fact that the book can appeal to such a wide audience is undoubtedly one of its most admirable qualities.

Berlin Diaries.......2006-11-04

The best and most insightful book I have read about what life must have been like in Berlin during WW II. The writer, through his sister's diary, gives a vivid description of the top Nazi party members, and how the plot to kill Hitler was hatched and then failed. It is amazing the hero - Missie - survived the war. I could not put it down.

The princess can tell a story.......2006-09-29

Princess Marie Vassiltchikov, a member of some minor branch of the Russian nobility who ended up in Lithuania and then in Germany for World War II, can sure tell a story. Her diary is a good page turner. You always know what is going on. You're always want to find out what is going to happen next. I finished this book in a day or two and took it everywhere I went, because I had to find out what happened.

She is direct and never gets too intwined in her personal musings (although the curious would want to know more about personal/romantic and other dirt in a private diary).

Her story is intensified by the big events she is involved in.
She begins with Germany's descent into World War. Then, a number of her associates and probably herself (the editor says she is circumspect about this in her diary lest the diary be found)are involved in the aristocratic attempt to assassinate Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government in the fall of 1944. Finally, the Princess, as a Russian aristocrat emirge who spent World War II working for Germany, flees first Berlin and then Austria in fear of the advancing Soviet Army.

While the princess lives modestly on jobs translating and clipping English periodicals for various German foreign policy enterprises, her world is one of the titled wealthy in Germany and Austria. She's continually mixing it up with the descendants of the Royal Houses of Prussia, Russia, Austria and of Germany principalities like Bavaria and Hanover. Her friends are descendants of Bismark and Metternick. Most of her friends are also princesses, counts, countesses, princes, and even lowly barons.

For all the ravages of the War she faces, there is always a great estate or castle to stay in if her home is bombed out. Influential friends are able to send a car to fetch her even when she is stranded in the most remote Alpine villages. There is always a friend in high places to sign a special pass, get her an impossible-to-get ticket, offer her a new job, or pull strings for a transfer out of harm's way once she becomes a nurse. While sometimes there is a shortage of meat, there is always champagne. When there is no oil to heat lamps and cooking burners, there is always enough perfume to use for these purposes. While Germans are starving and millions are being murdered by the Nazis, there are often fine meals on provisions sent from friends in the embassies, from a friend's baronial estate, or from their diplomatic posts in Rumania or Hungary.

The marketing of the book attempts to paint Princess Marie Vassiltchikov
as a progressive fighter given her association with the Von Stauffenberg attempt to kill Hitler and take over the government. Alas, her aristocratic friends were not against the real setup in Germany. They were attempting to bail out of the war now that Germany was being beaten. They had not opposed Hitler when he outlawed Germany's working class political parties and unions and sent their leaders to concentration camps in the early 1930s. In fact, their party, the German National Party, a party more right wing in social policy than the Nazis, merged with the Nazis in the early 1930s. Most of her mail associates had held important posts in the German government for much of Hitler's regime: ambassadors, provincial governors, police chiefs, staff generals, and other officials. None of them were known for sticking up for human rights, democracy, or workers and farmers.

Indeed, what's shocking is the apparent indifference that Princess Marie Vassiltchikov and her pals show to the total suffering that ordinary Germans and Austrians faced, ordinary folk who didnt have castles to repair to when they needed housing, retainers to shoot or harvest food from estates when the food system broke down, who struggled to find bread and milk and never touched champagne. If the Princess and her ilk do face such genuine suffering during these years, what became of German factory workers, small farmers, family shop keepers?

This does not mean the good Princess doesn't suffer. At the end she suffers from starvation and its complications. Between the lines you can read in fears and anxiety that must have continued for the rest of her life, no matter how successful it may have been.

Above all, whether you like her or love her or not, the Princess knows how to tell a story you will follow through to the end.

Best and most original book on WWII ever written.......2006-07-29

Don't pay any attention to the one or two negative views in this section. This is a terrific book written from the weird persepective of the Blue Bloods, the European royalty the Nazis hated as much as they hated Jews. The fact that these people, all opposed to Hitler, could land on their feet over and over again in spite of everything is as funny as anything can be. I would have been a Top Ten TV Series had somebody had the sense to pick it up. Risk the few dollars cost, you won't be sorryl

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An Astonishing Historical Account of World War II

The Berlin Diaries, 1940-45
Marie "Missie" Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: Pimlico
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

An Astonishing Historical Account of World War II.......2005-01-16

Elegantly written true life account of an emigre white Russian princess who worked in the German foreign office during the war and whose friends in the German aristocracy became involved in the army plot to kill Hitler. In describing the daily crises of her society she documents subtextually the loss of her youth, her illusions and the best of the civilization of old Europe. The accompanying commentary by her brother is lucid and most informative of the events she describes--a very sad, beautiful story that deserves a much wider readership than it has achieved to date.

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The Berlin Diaries 1940 - 1945
Marie 'Missie' Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: The Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IYZSKA

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THE BERLIN DIARIES 1940-1945
MARIE MISSIE VASSILTCHIKOV
Manufacturer: FOLIO SOCIETY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S5K21E

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THE BERLIN DIARIES 1940-1945
Unknown
Manufacturer: CHATTO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S6BOPQ

The Berlin Diaries 1940-1945 of Marie Missie Vassiltchikov

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The Berlin Diaries 1940-1945 of Marie Missie Vassiltchikov
Marie Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FA35WK

Product Description

Red and black patterned boards in gray slipcase.

THE BERLIN DIARIES 1940-1945 OF MARIE 'MISSIE' VASSEILTCHIKOV.

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THE BERLIN DIARIES 1940-1945 OF MARIE 'MISSIE' VASSEILTCHIKOV.
George (edit). Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RFA3BY

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Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945
Marie Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: Alfred A. Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OO12KE

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Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945.
Marie Vassiltchikov
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UY2SJ2

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Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICHCRO

Book Description

Senzi" A Woman to Remember is a unique POW memoir from World War 2, reflecting not only on the dangers and suffering of modern warfare, but, more importantly, on the lives of American GIs and German peasants thrown together is a system of forced farm labor. The way they related to one another as the war surged around them brings to the fore the values that, among ardinary people, unite even bitter enemies.

Customer Reviews:

A Memoir to Remember.......2002-01-31

In this simple and affectingly told memoir, a young World War II American prisoner of war develops a subtle and complex relationship with an older German woman, at whose farm he is held as a laborer. Looking back on the experience from the perspective of over 50 years, Jagoda discovers meanings he could only sense at the time. A moving and unusual drama of two people discovering -- and supporting -- each other in spite of the demands of their wartime roles and differences of their life experiences.

A magnificently crafted literary treat.......2002-01-26

Bob Jagoda is a gifted writer whose memoir portrays in fascinating style the life of an American POW. Jagoda has a superb ear for the spoken language, and a facility with the written word that make this book a must-read. My wife and I loved this book!

Memorable.......2002-01-18

Senzi is certainly a woman to remember. A true story that puts the usual POW memoir to shame. Fascinating and hopeful.

A Must Read.......2002-01-18

I thought I knew what war was all about, until I read Senzi: A Woman to Remember. The book, in addition to being dramatic and humorous, exposes that great layer of humanity that draws even enemies together at the level where it counts. This book is a must for anyone interested in real people.

A Must Read.......2002-01-18

Customer Reviews:

The People - a convenient fiction.......2007-01-06

This book is a very perceptive examination of a central tenet of both the British and American democracies, that is, the one where the central government rests on popular sovereignty - on the people. The author shows that is mostly a convenient fiction, but one that must be honored to legitimate democratic governments. In the first place, "the people" is a most nebulous concept - sufficiently vague to not affix specific rights and duties.

The author devotes at least half the book to 17th century English political history where the divine right of kings was gradually replaced by popular sovereignty exercised by Parliament. He shows where the Long Parliament of 1640 assumed supreme authority in the name of the people with no mechanisms actually in place for the "people" to check Parliament. The Levellers of that time attempted to bridge the gap of empowerment for the people, but were essentially ignored and suppressed keeping power in the hands of the few.

In later years and in America, the myth of the power of people has been sustained in many ways: extolling the importance of the virtuous yeoman (farmer), requiring participation in local militias where local social hierarchies can be reinforced, elections where pre-selected, elite candidates pander for votes, and holding carnivals where the gentry and peasants pretend to swap social roles. In all of these cases there is the pretense of social equality. It is all an elaborate game where elites interact with the ordinary just enough to remind everyone both of their superiority and sameness and to deflect grass-roots efforts to exercise power.

There is a great deal of discussion concerning the agreement of men in a hypothetical past to emerge from a state of nature to form a community and then to establish a government. In theory the community of men retains its superiority over the government, but the problem is that once power is invested in representatives, presidents, judges, etc, how can the people regain the upper hand. In America, Constitution writing was a pre-government community activity that prescribed a government and had to be ratified by state conventions of the people. The author points out that during the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England, the Convention (actually Parliament) was unwilling to return to a pre-government state to construct a constitution - too much chance for actual people's voices.

Since the time of the founding much has changed in America. Landed elites have long since been surpassed by business and financial elites. The rise of mass communications while increasing information flows also facilitates the ability to sustain all manner of myths including the myth of popular empowerment. This is a good book to understand that some key political myths in this country have been with us a long time.

Boring but relevant.......2006-06-22

Inventing the People is a study of the relation between political ideas and political reality in the Anglo-American world. Morgan's ultimate goal is to explain the development of the American way of government. Morgan's thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and
serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.

Morgan's thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.

Inventing the People is an examination of the relation between political thoughts and political reality in the Anglo-American world. Morgan's ultimate goal is to trace the development of the American style of government. Morgan's, Hume inspired, thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.

A Great Book to Understand our Forefathers.......2006-03-11

I'm barely a quarter of the way through the book. It's very dense in that there is so much to read and ponder within its covers. But what I have read shows that he has done his homework, and is presenting the material in a way that makes me feel like I was part of the popular debate occuring in the halls of government at the time.

If you want to know why the constitution is written the way it is, where our forefathers got the crazy idea that men are inherently sovereign and have God-given rights, you'll need to get this book. It explains the slow, awkward, and surprising evolution of philosophy as people began to realize kings were no more endowed with a a mandate from God than men were. If you can't imagine what was really going on in people's minds between the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, this book will fill in all of the missing gaps.

Getting back to basics, civicly speaking.......2002-11-12

We the People, right? Well, it's not obvious anymore, looking around at the usurping of many of our rights. This book states the obvious in simple terms that we can all understand at today's hectic pace. A very good history lesson.

Inventing the People the rise popular sovereignty in England & America.

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Inventing the People the rise popular sovereignty in England & America.
Edmund S. Morgan
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SRUJK6

Book Description

In this impassioned exposé, lifelong skier Hal Clifford reveals how publicly traded corporations gained control of America's most popular winter sport during the 1990s, and how they are gutting ski towns, the natural environment, and skiing itself in a largely futile search for short-term profits.
Chronicling the collision between Wall Street's demand for unceasing revenue growth and the fragile natural and social environments of small mountain communities, Clifford shows how the modern ski industry promotes its product as environmentally friendly--even invoking the words and emblems of such environmental icons as Ansel Adams and John Muir--while at the same time creating urban-style problems for mountain villages. He also uncovers the ways in which resorts are carefully engineered to separate visitors from their money, much like theme parks.
Clifford suggests an alternative to this bleak picture in the return-to-the-roots movement that is now beginning to find its voice in American ski towns from Mammoth Lakes, California, to Stowe, Vermont. He relates the stories of creative business people who are shifting control of the ski business back to the communities that host it.
Hard-hitting and carefully researched, Downhill Slide is indispensable reading for anyone who lives in, visits, or cares about what is happening to America's alpine communities.

Customer Reviews:

Tells it like it is.......2007-05-17

Although this book can be read like a big negative, it is very insightful. There are likely to be some positive affects of development which the author does not spend time describing and definitely comes across as having an agenda, but for the curious it is a great read. I was unable to put the book down until I was finished!

Must read for any one involved with ski companys.......2006-07-20

Great read, exceptionaly well resurched, gets a bit slow at the end, keep an open mind as could be a bit one sided makes the corporations seem a little worse than they realy are, written in 2000 but still right on in 2006. Applies the world over not just the in the USA.

scholarly skiing.......2004-03-17

it is clearly evident that clifford did a tremendous amount of research for this book and that makes it a truly interesting read. although he was a little too biased at times, he gives a thoughtful and unique perspective on the current status and future ramifications of the ski industry.

Current History in Paradise.......2004-01-26

This is the kind of book there should have been more of forty years ago; then we might not be in this fix.

Clifford sketches the transformation of the ski industry from a quaint and healthy alternative to gambling and drinking in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to a monster industry in the 21st, still healthy but not so quaint, that gives drinking and gambling fierce competition for discretionary dollars in our nation's mountain towns.

As mining and logging was gradually phased out, the focus shifted to recreation, changing charming towns into mere appendages of mega-resorts whose reason for being is the hawking of overpriced real estate, overpriced equipment, overpriced food, overpriced lift tickets-- and in the summer overpriced greens fees and tickets to film and music festivals. In most cases the resorts' gouging rest upon a firm foundation of reasonably priced public land leases, usually involving the US Forest Service, an agency of the Dept of Agriculture.

This last detail presents a problem for Clifford and his publisher, Sierra Club Books, For as logging and mining revenues to the USDA decline, it is hesitant to raise too sharply the rents or regulations on its new, relatively clean tenants, the resort operators. When Clifford makes the case for saving elk or lynx habitat the Forest Service is no doubt sympathetic, but probably a lot more interested in saving its own budget, and all the jobs that it supports. And a ski run, while not ideal, is a much better place for wildlife to thrive than what's left after a mining company extracts ore.

In Colorado there is a pair of sites, both mentioned in DOWNHILL SLIDE: Copper Mtn. Ski Area, and just 5 miles up the road, the mothballed Climax Molybdenum Mine. Copper Mtn has cut down some trees for ski runs and probably uses too much water for snowmaking and doesn't build housing in its "village" for non-rich people--but these are all things that can be fixed. At Climax what is left is a gray, treeless wasteland of slag heaps and tailing ponds. Half a mountain has been eaten away and the leftover sludge sluiced onto a vast flat area resembling a parking lot, into which you could fit dozens of parking lots as big as the one at Copper. Clifford spends many pages criticizing Copper and its owner, Intrawest Corp, but cites Climax only in a lone paragraph as a company which paid a good wage to its employees.

It seems to me that authors and publishers of perceptive and thoughtful books such as this one ought to propose real solutions to problems they elucidate. For example, why not build low cost employee housing for Copper Mtn on top of the wasteland at Climax? Anything, but anything they built, even Bauhaus, would be an improvement over what is there now. Looking at a map, one sees that a high speed quad could be run about 3 miles from this proposed employee housing to the top of Copper Mtn, thus cutting down on the commuter traffic from Leadville. The illegal workers discussed in Chapter 9 could realize the all-too-often elusive American Dream of skiing to work.

Disneylands in the mountains.......2003-05-07

This book should be required reading for people, skiers and non-skiers alike, who patronize ski resorts. DOWNHILL SLIDE exposes what really drives the continuing expansion of ski resorts -- and it isn't skiing. Clifford focuses on the "Big Three", the publically-traded corporations that control a large chunk of all the resorts in North America.

Although actual ski-run usage (including ski boarders) has been flat for a decade, resorts continue to bombard the US Forest Service with requests for more public land to build ski runs on. Why would they need more runs if the number of skiers is static? To build more condos and "ski villages" around. Clifford says that these companies are theme park/real estate developers masquerading as sports facilities.

The resorts are marketed as year-round recreation sites in order to keep the condos full of consumers for the retail establishments in the artifical "villages". The chapter entitled "Potemkin Villages and Emerald Cities" ought to bring a blush to the faces of those who sneer at Disneyland, but gush over the quaint shops and interesting restaurants at places like Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, or Whistler.

Why should we care that big corporations are peddling phoney "life experiences" in the heart of our public lands? Because Clifford says these bogus communities that are springing up in the most scenic parts of our national forests are environmental disaster sites. The thin mountain air is ill-equipped to cope with large new sources of pollution. Access roads and boundary fences interfere with wildlife. Clifford describes starving elk herds kept from their grazing areas by the fences around ranchettes put up by clebrities attracted to the Aspen lifestyle. Snowmaking equipment gobbles up enourmous quantities of energy and water. There are now sixteen golf courses in the arid Vail valley (those summer visitors must have recreation). In order to keep them green Vail Corporation appropriated the water rights of an indigenous town, Minturn. The large staff necessary to provide the amenities at the rustic magic kingdoms must commute from affordable housing in places like Minturn, often 50 or more miles away.

I quit downhill skiing in the early 70's, but since then have been a non-skiing customer at many of the resorts mentioned by Clifford -- Stratton, Stowe, Vail, Aspen, Sun Valley, Teton Village, Deer Park, and Snowbird. Never again. Skiers may be able to square their love of the sport with galloping environmental degradation, but non-skiers don't need to be party to it.

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Downhill Slide. (Bookshelf).(Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns and the Environment)(Book Review) (book review) : An article from: OnEarth
Marc Peruzzi
Manufacturer: Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Downhill | Skiing | Winter Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0009FW09A
Release Date: 2005-06-01

Book Description

This digital document is an article from OnEarth, published by Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. on March 22, 2003. The length of the article is 386 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Downhill Slide. (Bookshelf).(Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns and the Environment)(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Marc Peruzzi
Publication: OnEarth (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2003
Publisher: Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Page: 40(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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