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Hilke's Diary
Hilke's Diary is a battered chintz-covered little book with a flowery pattern, its lock (once so important to its young owner) long-since broken. It has survived an incredible near-70 years, and was the inseparable companion of a little German girl throughout World War II.
Hilke was evacuated from Hamburg and separated from her family; she was placed in 1940 with her uncle and aunt in Meisnheim, then later in 1942 she was sent to an estate as a companion for a little girl. Her siblings were also sent away, split up in the desperation to place them somewhere safe as bombing on Hamburg intensified with the firestorm in 1943.
In 1944, Hilke was sent to a boarding school on Lake Constance, miles from home. When the war ended this school closed and the pupils were left on the streets with just a handful of money, no papers, and no responsible adult to help them get home.
Hilke then embarked on a long journey across Germany to find her family, unsure whether they had even survived the bombing. Her childhood diary was her one confidant along her arduous journey home. This title presents the important record of the experience of war through the eyes of a little German girl. It is complemented by family photographs, contemporary articles, maps, and a timeline of events.
Hilke was evacuated from Hamburg and separated from her family; she was placed in 1940 with her uncle and aunt in Meisnheim, then later in 1942 she was sent to an estate as a companion for a little girl. Her siblings were also sent away, split up in the desperation to place them somewhere safe as bombing on Hamburg intensified with the firestorm in 1943.
In 1944, Hilke was sent to a boarding school on Lake Constance, miles from home. When the war ended this school closed and the pupils were left on the streets with just a handful of money, no papers, and no responsible adult to help them get home.
Hilke then embarked on a long journey across Germany to find her family, unsure whether they had even survived the bombing. Her childhood diary was her one confidant along her arduous journey home. This title presents the important record of the experience of war through the eyes of a little German girl. It is complemented by family photographs, contemporary articles, maps, and a timeline of events.
- GenresHistory
128 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2015
This offers a rare perspective for the English-language reader, to see World War II from the POV of a German civilian, in this case a teenage girl from a middle-class family in Hamburg. Hilke was twelve when she began her diary in 1940, and seventeen when it ended in 1945. I've never read the diary of a non-Jewish German civilian written during that time period. Indeed, this may be the only one that's available in English.
Unfortunately, the book is very boring. Most diaries are. I own several (unpublished) historical diaries and they're all quite mundane. Hilke seems to have been largely apolitical, although when the Allies invaded and everyone was tearing down their Hitler posters and swastika flags she did write in her diary how disgusted she was by their unpatriotic behavior, and how she actually left the room when she saw someone using a swastika flag as a dishcloth. But if I were a patriotic German having grown up under Nazism, I might well feel the same way.
Biographical information about the other family members, and photos of them, help pad out the story, but some annotations from would have been nice. It would have been nice to have some recollections from Hilke about her wartime experiences that she didn't write about in her diary at the time.
I understand that this is not the book's fault. Hilke herself was killed in a car accident in 1950s, aged only 27, and the book was translated and edited by her sister Geseke. But it seems like Geseke could have provided the aforementioned annotations, or gotten some scholar of the German war effort to write an illuminating foreword about life as a German civilian in World War II. (A matter of interest: as in the major British cities, early in the war the families living in major German cities often had their children evacuated to the countryside to escape the expected bombardment.)
I would say this book is for a select audience and while the general population wouldn't find it of much use, but scholars of the war, or of childhood in Nazi Germany, might. I'm going to donate my copy to the local library.
Unfortunately, the book is very boring. Most diaries are. I own several (unpublished) historical diaries and they're all quite mundane. Hilke seems to have been largely apolitical, although when the Allies invaded and everyone was tearing down their Hitler posters and swastika flags she did write in her diary how disgusted she was by their unpatriotic behavior, and how she actually left the room when she saw someone using a swastika flag as a dishcloth. But if I were a patriotic German having grown up under Nazism, I might well feel the same way.
Biographical information about the other family members, and photos of them, help pad out the story, but some annotations from would have been nice. It would have been nice to have some recollections from Hilke about her wartime experiences that she didn't write about in her diary at the time.
I understand that this is not the book's fault. Hilke herself was killed in a car accident in 1950s, aged only 27, and the book was translated and edited by her sister Geseke. But it seems like Geseke could have provided the aforementioned annotations, or gotten some scholar of the German war effort to write an illuminating foreword about life as a German civilian in World War II. (A matter of interest: as in the major British cities, early in the war the families living in major German cities often had their children evacuated to the countryside to escape the expected bombardment.)
I would say this book is for a select audience and while the general population wouldn't find it of much use, but scholars of the war, or of childhood in Nazi Germany, might. I'm going to donate my copy to the local library.
March 18, 2009
Despite all the historians' tomes to the contrary, wars are not really about troop movements and ground gained. What matters to the civilians is being separated from loved ones, wondering where the next meal will come from, and worrying whether the house you live in will still be standing at the end of the day.
These are the issues that fill the pages of Hilke's Diary. She is a girl on the cusp of womanhood, and in between the descriptions of first loves and personal milestones are musings as to whether her house is still standing, recordings of the deaths of friends, and constant longing for her family, from whom she is separated most of the time.
Hilke's Diary is unique in that we are most used to reading stories of the oppressed or British memoirs of carrying on through the Blitz. Hilke's home city is Hamburg, she is in the Hitler Youth, and the Americans, French and British who are mentioned in her comments are clearly the enemy. It is very interesting to get another perspective, and from a very young person, on this turbulent time.
I was surprised and moved by the ending of this slim volume, and was grateful to Hilke's sister for translating the diary for us to read so many years later.
These are the issues that fill the pages of Hilke's Diary. She is a girl on the cusp of womanhood, and in between the descriptions of first loves and personal milestones are musings as to whether her house is still standing, recordings of the deaths of friends, and constant longing for her family, from whom she is separated most of the time.
Hilke's Diary is unique in that we are most used to reading stories of the oppressed or British memoirs of carrying on through the Blitz. Hilke's home city is Hamburg, she is in the Hitler Youth, and the Americans, French and British who are mentioned in her comments are clearly the enemy. It is very interesting to get another perspective, and from a very young person, on this turbulent time.
I was surprised and moved by the ending of this slim volume, and was grateful to Hilke's sister for translating the diary for us to read so many years later.
December 18, 2025
A very important book that tells the side of war that often gets missed. An interesting German perspective of a girl who was living it.
As someone with German relatives who went though it , I found this book hit close to home for me , with some of the things my ancestors saw, experienced and survived ( yet some did not) similar in this book.
Such harrowing tales of survival in one of the most recent world tragedies.
So very sad how women and children are the first to suffer greatly at war times. I thank Hilke for sharing her story’s and her family for continuing it on. Her survival is inspiring and this book is something everyone should read.
As someone with German relatives who went though it , I found this book hit close to home for me , with some of the things my ancestors saw, experienced and survived ( yet some did not) similar in this book.
Such harrowing tales of survival in one of the most recent world tragedies.
So very sad how women and children are the first to suffer greatly at war times. I thank Hilke for sharing her story’s and her family for continuing it on. Her survival is inspiring and this book is something everyone should read.
November 26, 2022
I gave it 4* because while I wouldn’t pick it up again it was a thought provoking read as it offers a German Civilian’s insight to the war.
Being that the author was young, the diary doesn’t offer all that much detail, but at the end of the day they’re true thoughts and feelings and therefore I found it interesting to read.
Being that the author was young, the diary doesn’t offer all that much detail, but at the end of the day they’re true thoughts and feelings and therefore I found it interesting to read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews