Letters From Berlin: A Story of War, Survival, and the Redeeming Power of Love and Friendship

by Kerstin Lieff

When Margarete Dos moved with her family to Berlin on the eve of World War II, she and her younger brother were blindly ushered into a generation of Hitler Youth. Like countless citizens under Hitler’s regime, Margarete struggled to understand what was happening to her country. Later, as a nurse for the German Red Cross, she treated countless young soldiers—recruited in the eleventh hour to fight a losing battle—they would die before her eyes as Allied bombs racked her beloved city. Yet, her deep humanity, intelligence, and passion for life—which sparkles in every sentence of her memoir—carried Margarete through to war’s end. But just when she thought the worst was over, and she and her mother were on a train headed to Sweden, they were suddenly rerouted deep into Russia…This powerful account draws back the curtain on a piece of history that has been largely overlooked—the nightmare that millions of German civilians suffered, simply because they were German. That Margarete survived to tell her tale so vividly and courageously is a gift to us all.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Memoir, Germany, Holocaust, Biography

389 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Kerstin Lieff came to the United States with her parents as an immigrant from Germany in 1952. She grew up in Minnesota and now calls Boulder her home. She is a recent graduate from Fairleigh Dickinson University where she received her Master's Degree in creative writing. Her first book, LETTERS FROM BERLIN, is a memoir of a young woman caught in the devastation of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, and was published in 2012. Kerstin has been accepted as a Teach For America secondary English teacher and is awaiting her placement to teach in the fall of 2013. She has two children, three grandchildren, and one dog.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a freakishly large number of personal stories of people who survived both hot and cold wars in Berlin, and Letters From Berlin is one of the best. This memoir by Kerstin Lieff, written about and with her mother Margarete Dos, is the most comprehensive, this-is-what-I-saw, this-is-what-I experienced account that I have read.

The story follows Margarete from her days as a young girl at the beginning of the war through young womanhood in a Russian work camp after the war. In it she describes her time in the Hitler Youth, her brother leaving for war at the age of 16, the relentless bombing by the Allies, and her perilous work at a Red Cross hospital as Russian soldiers advanced on her beloved city. She talks about the two years of hard labor that she and her mother spent in the work camp and how they survived that only to return to near starvation in Berlin. Her experiences are incredible and fascinating.

These stories of unbelievable strength and resourcefulness always make me wonder if I could have endured such an ordeal – for seven years, no less. I’m sure not. I’m sure if the same had happened to me, my bones would be buried in a mass grave somewhere on the Russian steppes.

A good British counterpart to this book is Few Eggs and No Oranges.

[Sabrina Devonshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an amazing book. Lieff tells her mother Margarete's story of surviving World War II in Germany and also enduring months in a Russian prison camp. The writing is beautiful and the Margarete's story so compelling - I soon cared for her like a family member and felt very close to the suffering she endured. It really pulls you out of your modern-day existence and takes you back to another era where so many people endured un-ending hardship. I will never forget this book.

[Ann Single · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interested in these memoirs - hard to put down and realised how ignorant I was about Germany post WWII. Found the letters at the end a bit repetitive and thought the book could have been stronger without them. What stories do our families hold? Worth trying to capture them even if there isn't a novel in it. History has many truths.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the synopsis of this book gave me a jolt of recognition - it sounded in some ways as though it could have been my Aunt Elisabeth's story: a girl growing up in Germany as Hitler comes to power, a father in the military, having medical school studies interrupted by the war, struggling to survive after the war with her mother as everything they owned was taken from them. I wished I had known my aunt better; the few times she and my uncle visited us I was too young and ignorant to appreciate what she lived through.

This story is hard to read; it's hard in the sense of experiencing the fear and hardships that Margarete lived with through those many years. And surviving the siege of Berlin wasn't the end of it either; she and her mother left the city only to become Russian captives in a gulag. They managed to get released and return to Germany, and eventually got to the United States. The author is Margarete's daughter, and I can see why she had to cajole her mother into telling the story - who would want to re-live these horrors? But it is an important story, one that shows clearly what it was like to be an ordinary German citizen in those years, how it was possible for Hitler to come to power, or for ordinary people to be unaware of the existence of concentration camps.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Margarete Dos came of age in Hitler's Germany and survived World War II only to be sent with her mother to a Soviet gulag.
Late in life, she told her story to her daughter, Kerstin Lieff, who retells it in this memoir. After her mother's death, Lieff came across letters Dos had written -- but never managed to send -- to a soldier who apparently was a close friend. This book also contains those letters, written during the final days of the war and the first days after the war ended. Lieff was unable to find out what became of the mystery soldier; she wasn't able to learn much of anything about him.
It's all fascinating, but the narrative is a far better read than the letters. Lieff does a wonderful job of telling her mother's difficult story in well-paced, vivid prose. It's a reminder that the war was a horrible time for everyone, and the German people were no exception.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible story of a life lived through WW2. Trigger warning of SA, not a lot but spoken of enough that it’s worth mentioning - assuming to emphasize how bad it was living during this time (for women).

Took me longer to read than normal as it’s a heavier read but I’m glad I read it, I learned a lot about how some of the Germans perceived the war (and how all Germans were on Hitlers side).

[Maureen E · Rating 4 out of 5]

[caption id="attachment_3474" align="alignleft" width="193"] Image from Goodreads[/caption]

When Margarete Dos moved with her family to Berlin on the eve of World War II, she and her younger brother were blindly ushered into a generation of Hitler Youth. Like countless citizens under Hitler’s regime, Margarete struggled to understand what was happening to her country. Later, as a nurse for the German Red Cross, she treated countless young soldiers—recruited in the eleventh hour to fight a losing battle—they would die before her eyes as Allied bombs racked her beloved city. Yet, her deep humanity, intelligence, and passion for life—which sparkles in every sentence of her memoir—carried Margarete through to war’s end. But just when she thought the worst was over, and she and her mother were on a train headed to Sweden, they were suddenly rerouted deep into Russia.
Summary from Goodreads

Apparently, I am completely incapable of resisting non-fiction books about WWII. I am fascinated by the period, and there are so many of them, from so many different points of view. Story is my thing, and there are enough stories to keep me reading forever. Letters from Berlin is a relatively new book (published in 2012). It's from a point of view that I haven't seen very much--an ordinary German girl from before the war through her experiences in a Russian prison camp after the war. The text is based on oral recollections from Margarete Dos, as recorded by her daughter Kerstin, as well as some written records. All together, it makes a fascinating glimpse into her life during the war.

It's also a fascinating glimpse at the way Lieff has put together the narrative. She freely admits that she has rearranged her mother's scattered reminiscences into something that's a cohesive narrative. Throughout, she includes footnotes when she has been not been able to confirm her mother's account, or where it contradicts the known historical record.

Margarete seems to have been a skilled storyteller, with a gift for description and dialogue. The book is incredibly readable, funny at some points and heartbreaking at others. The story is reinforced with wonderful pictures of her family, Berlin, Jena (where she studied medicine).

And yet, I was constantly wondering to what extent I could trust the narrative, partly since Margarete was recounting all of this from such a distance, but also because Lieff herself is so present in the editing and shaping of the story. It's not that I think she's falsified information, or anything close. I don't! But reading Letters from Berlin was like looking though wavy glass--it's not that the landscape doesn't really exist, but it's not exactly as you see it. I don't know, and can't know, to what extent this is true.

Moreover, it's not a fault in the book--and yet it affected my reading experience so strongly that I couldn't leave it out of this review. Soon afterwards, I read Home Front Girl, which is also a memoir of a girl growing up during WWII, compiled and published by her daughter. But in that case, I was told that the account was largely unedited, and compiled from diary entries kept at the time, and so I trusted its veracity. In short, my reading experiences for these two very similar books were almost entirely different, and yet I'm not sure that the actual process for either one was so very different.

Regardless, Letters from Berlin is a great book for those who are interested in WWII. Margarete Dos's reminiscences give a glimpse into the reactions of an average German family during and after the war. I felt (paradoxically, given my issues above) that I knew her by the end, just from her vivid narrative.

Book source: public library
Book information: Lyons Press, 2012; adult non-fiction (could easily be YA)

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty good compilation of memories into a readable story. The characters are really believable.

My biggest problem with this book was my inability to accept that the main character did not know of the brutality of her own country and that country's responsibility for the death and destruction of the occupied countries and England. I had little compassion for the anger about the bombings of their beautiful cities. Not once was there an expression of understanding that their country had started and could stop the war of aggression.

Even after the war and after learning of the atrocities committed by her government her only lament was for herself, her family and the conditions they were subjected to. Why wouldn't the Russians expect the German people to help rebuild what they had destroyed in Russia? Why would she whine about their rations in the camp when I am sure the citizens of the countryside were eating the same things? Why was their no shame for the way their country treated Allied POWs? Theirs were treated as if they were away at summer camp.

Bottom line it was whine, whine, whine.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really compelling viewpoint of the years just prior to and following World War II. I learned some things I did not know about the general feeling of Germans regarding the war, the Nazi party, and their own lives. The author is always careful to point out where recollection may not be all that accurate, yet stay true to her mother's narrative.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely interesting memoir about life in Berlin during the Second World War and thereafter, as well as two years spent working in a Soviet Gulag. Highly recommend this very readable interesting book.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perspective we don't see so much of - the experience of German civilians during WW2. It amazes me how the human spirit can survive so much horror.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keratin Lief writes her mother’s story of growing up in Berlin during WW2.
I appreciated Kerstins lengthy introduction to how the book came about. The story is all the more poignant knowing her mother Margaret Dos had never spoken of her life during the war. Now in the twilight of her years and living in America her daughter finally convinced her mother to speak what has been the unspeakable.

I found the writing to be honest, brutal very believable and heart rending. There were beautiful moments too. When, during another nightly bombing of Berlin by the British or American planes, Margaret is caught in the open trying to reach home and her mother. She sees homes and people burning. Hopelessness in closing in when she sees a tree ahead. The tree is alive and she runs to it and hugs the tree to embrace its life. As she does this she feels a gentle touch and a voice tells her she will have a baby. That’s when she believes she has an angel.
Margaret’s recollections of these years are profound and detailed. Her daughter realises later that some details are not accurate but she leaves them in the story, only clarifying in the end notes.
I was engrossed in the story from start to finish. It is a rare primary source about the war on ordinary German people as they lived and died. The aftermath when the Russians entered Berlin is also a vivid description of Margaret and her mother’s ongoing ordeal.

[Jennifer Hunteman Shackelford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to the Diary of Anne Frank, although through the memories of an older German woman, the book and accompanying diary "letters" give the readers a look into what war-torn Germans were living like. The book takes readers from the earliest memories of a young German girl before war had broken out, her dreams and how those dreams changed after war began. The book made me feel like I was right alongside this young woman during the hardest years of her life. Reading through the appendices, the reader knows the young girl does indeed survive to emmigrate to the US and have a family.
Although WWII and the Hitler regime are far removed from us today, one cannot help to feel touched by this book. It gives the reader a new perspective on how Germans really felt about Hitler and the SS/SA and how frightening the ordeal was for Germans. I highly recommend this book, if not for a new perspective of war-torn Germans.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the final letters from Grete.
"Auf Wiedersehen, my dear Franzel. I will return to you, if you’ll let me know where you are. I think only of you, and love no one as dearly as I do you. This is true, and I’ll stay with you forever."
You'll wonder how many wartime love stories were buried unknown.

[Hadyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fascinating story of a German girl during WWII and its aftermath. I was riveted. However, I agree with some of the other posters that the letters at the end were repetitive and not that interesting.

[Tom Sells]

Very interesting!

The memory of a person that experienced so many events is quite interesting. People who experienced WWII have many experiences and stories to relate. You will find this book interesting and sad.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare viewpoint.

[Joanne Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful story, sometimes hard to read because of all the suffering, but well written and hard to put down.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I was sad that it had ended.

[Jemima · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in the West learning 20th century WWII history, we took it on board that the British, the Americans and for a while the Russians were the good guys. The Germans and the Japanese were the bad guys - simple as that. History, of course, is always perceived and told from the viewpoint of the person telling it, and often the viewpoint of the other party/ies is minimised, ignored, glossed over or dressed up in a way to enhance the teller's version. We never, ever learnt about the history of the war from the German point of view, from the Germans themselves, and it is only in recent years that the children of those who lived during the war years are now telling the stories of their parents and grandparents. And about time too.

Almost as interesting as the story itself, is the process taken to have the parents'/grandparents' stories told. Often there is so much pain and trauma that many of these stories of survival go unheard. In this particular instance, after some persuasion, Margarete made recordings of her story with her daughter Kerstin, and after her death in 2005, Kerstin took it upon herself to compile the recordings into a book. She also found diaries and photos which have greatly enlarged and enhanced the oral recordings made by her mother.

I can only imagine the emotion that came to the surface during the telling of Margarete's story, the courage it took to open up such old wounds and let out the grief and anger there. As we know war is never pretty, and it is always the civilian that cops the brunt of whatever the conflict is. Kerstin Lieff has transcribed her mother's story, adding historical and narrative detail where necessary.

Margarete Dos was a child when Hitler came to power, and very quickly it seems he became a figure to be feared and obeyed. She is training to be a doctor when the war starts, but quickly moves back to Berlin to be with her mother. She describes vividly the terror and horror of the city being bombed around her. The brutality of the approaching Russians matches the fear of living under the Nazis, and it seems it is more by good luck than good management that Margarete survives this terrible, terrible time. Her mother is of Swedish origin, so late in 1945, Margarete and her mother finally manage to get themselves on a train supposedly taking them to a new life in Sweden. Instead they find themselves transported to a Russian gulag, where again, against the odds they somehow manage to survive. Their return to Berlin after two years sees them trying to restart their lives, along with millions of other displaced people, and eventually they do make it to Sweden.

This paragraph only gives a taste, and does very little justice to this dreadful time in our modern history. Yet again, we are reminded of the strength of the human spirit to survive, the power of hope, and most importantly that for every war that is won, there is the other side, the loser, whose stories are almost never told, but have as much right to be told.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humankind in general can be sold anything, even a war, and the bewildered German populaces were no exception. The world war that the Nazis Thousand Year Reich axis powered governments spread world wide only lasted twelve years. The day of reckoning had arrived. This is a true story of the reality of war impacting so many unsuspecting victims. When will humanity ever learn the brutal consequences that are sold to them by forceful psychopathic leaders?

EXCERPTS:

I was beginning to figure some things out: Hitler was not our ally, and the war was no longer making sense. We had invaded Poland, and no one seemed to know why. No one was ecstatic the way they were when we “liberated” Czechoslovakia and the Rhineland. Things were beginning to feel wrong and frightening, and all I could think and wonder was, Won’t this war be over soon? And my close friends felt the same way. We began to listen to the BBC, but this was not an easy thing. It was illegal, and we knew that. It had been outlawed at the start of the war to listen to any foreign station; to do so and get caught could land you in a prison, a work camp, or worse yet—dead.

They broadcast in German, but it was the British news, and it didn’t sound anything like what we were hearing on our German propaganda stations.

The American soldier is of course a much more humane person than the Russian. Of the two evils, this would be the better one.

To tell the truth, the Nazis left us in such a disgrace. They always spoke so grandiosely of their new weapons and our eventual history-making turnaround. From the very beginning, we always said, if one has the audacity to start a war, one must know when the moment has come that one must give up and have the courage to surrender, and to know when one has been defeated.

[Donna Langan · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, kudos to the author for sharing her mother's fascinating story in such a realistic fashion...I felt as if Margarete was telling us the story herself. I was somewhat amazed to hear of the many hardships that the German people endured, during and especially after the war...her experience in the Gulag, etc. It was a horrific account but honestly, what do you expect during wartime?

What I didn't like was that there wasn't much mention of the millions of Jews that died in the concentration camps. I realize that due to Nazi propaganda, they weren't aware of the atrocities during the war but she certainly knew of it soon after?! She didn't seem to have been all that horrified or traumatized about what her country had done. I'm sorry, but the prison camp that she endured pales in comparison to millions of Jews being gassed to death! I kept waiting and waiting for her to lament about the horror of it all but that never happened. Evidently she tried to commit suicide but who knows if it was because of any guilt or shame from what happened to the Jews?

The letters were an interesting window into Margarete's soul and psyche, although I got bored and started skimming through the last few. Too bad they weren't able to find out who Peter was...maybe he'll be discovered eventually from someone reading this book? All in all a great read...could hardly put it down...just wish she had expressed more sympathy and outrage about the holocaust.

[Deborah Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such an interesting read and the first of its type I have ever read. We all know the suffering of the jewish people in the hands of the germans but the german people themselves didn't have exactly easy. The times told through the eyes of a young teenage girl growing up in this time in history is incredible. How scared they were to speak their own minds and many didn't like what Hitler was doing to the country. At first they did but eventually they saw how damaging & how mad he was.

A scene during a time when Grete was studying to be a nurse showed how hard it was to speak your mind. A few had a party got a bit drunk told a joke about Hitler & the next day one of the girls came to hem in tears saying she would have to report them. They were all terrified it meant imprisonment or worse!

The starvation & then the suffering in a Gulag in the hands of the Russians was awful to say the least.

This book really opened my eyes to that side of the war. No one wins we all know that but to read about it from a different point of view than the British or French is a good thing I think.

It did get a little tedious at times but overall I don't know you could say I enjoyed it but learnt a lot & would recommend it. She was a brave young girl living in an awful time in history.

[Leanne Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for presenting your mother's story. It was truly a beautifully presented story that read like a suspenseful, tragic, emotional, and even exciting novel. That is is someone's memoirs makes it even more haunting. I read it in days and hated to put it down. It is engaging and lovely. It draws in the reader to her story giving the facts and figures of history that are shocking, a real voice and emotional attachment to highlight the gruesome nature of this period in history. This story of Margarete will stay with me for a long while. Much of the historical details of what happened to German citizens at the end of the war was eye opening to me. Her strength is truly inspiring. From going through the bombings to working the first aid station which is absolutely horrific as she describes it, to her years in the Russian Gulag. A truly incredible story. Again, thank you for sharing it. The years you spent to do so feel like you gave us a gift of a story that in inspiring as it tragic and it feels important to have to read it. Highly Recommend.

[Richard Ure · Rating 5 out of 5]

As one who has visited Germany four times and Berlin twice, it has become my favourite city in Europe. I have admiration for the way in which the German people have faced up to their past and recovered from the terrible carnage their tyrannical leader visited upon them. I hope we all learn from it as we have had a few examples since.

It is superficial for people to mark the book down because it does not revisit facts which have been re-told many times. This was not the book’s intention cover more than the author’s mother’s experience. I hope everyone who feels this way reads as far as the epilogue which reveals that after the end of the war on 8 May 1945 2.6 million German people, mainly women and children, died from starvation or lack of medical care. This statistic should be more widely known.

Letters from Berlin is a very worthwhile addition to the small amount of literature from those who were sheltering as the bombs fell upon them.

[Carol Wakefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing survival story. First of a young woman's teen age years spent in Berlin during WW11. Secondly surviving a couple years in a gulag in Russia working in a coal mine and on farms. This when a train taking Germans with a Swedish connection to Sweden is diverted to a slave labor camp in Russia. And finally a return to Berlin after the gulag years to find the city in deep distress overrun by refugees and with little food or housing available. Eventually marguerite and her mother do find a way to get to Sweden where life is easier and finally to America where marguerite eventually relates the story of her life to her daughter, a story she had not been able to talk about during most of her American years. A gripping tale.

[Carol Brill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. There is so much to admire in Letters from Berlin. Kerstin Lieff shows the story of Hitler's atrocities from the perspective of a young German women, a perspective I've regrettably rarely considered in my own reading about the second world war.
As a writer, what I found most amazing about this book, is that Ms. Lieff is telling her own mother's heart wrenching survival of abuse, imprisonment, and unspeakable loss. Yet, it never gets sentimental. We hear the story in her mother's steady and resolute voice. The research and love that went into this story shines through on every page.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marguerite Dos and her family moved to Berlin on the eve of WWII. She and her brother were caught up in the Hitler youth. She was not happy with what was happening, but she became a nurse hoping she could help the soldiers. She was horrified as the bombs reduced her home to rubble. Her humanity and love kept her going until the end, and she and her mother were on a train to Sweden but suddenly were rerouted to Russia. How she suffered for months as a prisoner there before her release makes one realize that many Germans suffered harshly because of Hitler's war. Not as much is written from this point of view and I recommend this book.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very moving account of a young girl growing up in Germany before and during WWII, Letters from Berlin is based on the author's memories of that time, as recounted to her own daughter 50 years later. The memoir rarely expands into events outside the main character's immediate experiences and this is mostly a strength. The personal voice is strong and we feel for the young Margarete as she struggles to live through terrible times. However, this also becomes a weakness as we hope for some reflection on events such as the gradual disappearance of the Jews. The letters with which the book concludes are repetitive and may have been better omitted or included as an appendix.