The Dancing Bear

by Frances Faviell

‘You don’t want to mind about any of this,’ said the driver, waving a hand at the grey ruins and the greyer dust. ‘In a few days you’ll be so used to it that you’ll like them. Berlin’s a grand place! I’d rather be here than anywhere else in the world, and that’s a fact.’

This new edition includes an afterword by Frances Faviell’s son, John Parker, and other supplementary material.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Germany, World War II, War, Ebooks, British Literature

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Frances Faviell (1905-1959) was the pen name of Olivia Faviell Lucas, painter and author. She studied at the Slade School of Art in London under the aegis of Leon Underwood. In 1930 she married a Hungarian academic and travelled with him to India where she lived for some time at the ashram of Rabindranath Tagore, and visiting Nagaland. She then lived in Japan and China until having to flee from Shanghai during the Japanese invasion. She met her second husband Richard Parker in 1939 and married him in 1940.

Reviews

[Carol, She's so Novel ꧁꧂ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frances Faviell (real name Olivia Faviell Lucas) together with their young son John joined her senior civil servant husband at his posting in post WW2 Berlin. Shortly afterwards she encountered Frau Altman trying to shift a load too heavy for her to bear. Frances & her driver, the resourceful Stampie take Frau Altman home. Both are tender hearted people & do their best to help the Altman family who are starving & freezing almost to the point of death. (everything, including electricity, is harshly rationed to the Berliners.) This is the start of a very close friendship, that certainly was not without risk for Faviell & Stampie.

I have never thought enough about what happens to the vanquished in an occupied country! One of the daughters of Frau Altman, Ursula, has been raped multiple times by the occupying Russian soldiers & later sells herself for a warm coat. Her mother shuts her eyes to what Ursula & her spoilt brother Fritz do for the family to survive (they both become very resourceful entrepreneurs!) Their sister, beautiful & sweet Lili, is not raped, but dies after an abortion. Faviell believes her lover was Russian.

The starting 27% of the book is an easy 5★ for me, but the narrow focus Ms Faviell takes becomes too narrow for me later on. Also, (& I guess Faviell may not have known this) the Russians were not the only rapists among the allies.
https://www.thelocal.de/20150305/book.... But this was Ms Faviell's first book. For a first book (& a nonfiction one at that!) the writing shows a lot of skill.

Still well worth reading for the powerful start and I did find Ursula fascinating. I have checked my kindle & I'm delighted to find that I also own A Chelsea Concerto and one of her novels, Thalia (Goodreads search acting up, sorry!) I will be excited to read both.

Thanks to Dean St Press who have unearthed so many of these nearly forgotten books.

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an account of the author, Frances Faviell's time in Berlin, in the immediate aftermath of WW2. She befriends Frau Altmann after seeing her struggling up the street with an overloaded cart of furnishings, stopping to help her when she faints and taking her back to her house. Through this relationship, we get to see both sides of the story, although, mostly from the perspective of the German family.
I found it interesting, not having read much from this time, but the writer skims over a lot of the major events, and little is explained. As the book was written in 1954, she would probably have assumed her readers knew more about what was happening at the time, so no need to go into detail.

[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dancing Bear is the memoirs of artist and author, Olivia Faviell Lucas, of her time spent in Berlin between 1946 and 1949, when her husband was posted there with the post-war British administration. Faviell gives the reader a picture of Berlin, which is at that point a city in ruins, divided among the allies, with its people having literally no resources (food, energy, jobs) to even survive. She writes mostly about the experiences of one family she became especially friendly with, the Altmanns after she once came upon Frau Altmann falling faint with hunger when trying to pull her sewing machine and other things to her home in a handcart. So in a sense, while this is non-fiction, it also is a story, of the Altmann family, a family struggling to make ends meet in post-war Berlin, in which while the circumstances of the war have undoubtedly played a part (the major one), their individual temperaments and worldviews do too (but they are told to us as the author views them). Alongside she relates her own experiences, with a few sprinklings of the broad events that affected daily life including the disagreements between the allies themselves, which had grave consequences.

This was another really impactful, and poignant read for me. I was interested in reading this one especially after reading Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories since that described the city in period preceding the war, but also because I have lately been reading a few books touching on or set in World War-II which have highlighted different sides, different perspectives, different experiences. This too in many ways brought forth something that the World-War-II themed graphic novel that I’d read earlier (The Wolves of La Louviere) had also highlighted—that at times, the allies, the victors, were on some counts, perhaps, really not very much better than their opponents. Some reviews of this book have pointed out its limited scope, and I can see where there are coming from. But while the book may have just given one viewpoint, it is still a perspective, and one that focuses (besides of course one family’s story) on aspects that were relevant in day-to-day life—People needed to be fed, clothed, employed, warmed (in a particularly harsh winter); deaths, marriages, and births went on as always; some tried to hold on to their beliefs, traditions, others knew they couldn’t survive without certain ideas, principles being given up. I read the kindle edition of this book and liked that they included a few of the author’s sketches at the end. Her view of the world as an artist does reflect in some of her descriptions, which I enjoyed (and as usual never marked when reading). I found this both interesting (though heart-breaking) and well worth the read.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author, Frances Faviell, accompanied her husband as part of the British Control Commission to Berlin in 1946, along with her young son, John. Berlin is in ruins and you can feel the author’s shock at what she finds; even though she has endured the Blitz in London (she writes about this in, “A Chelsea Concerto,” which I have yet to read).

Faviell has a driver, nicknamed, ‘Stampie,’ who is a wonderful source of knowledge about the broken city she finds herself in and who – like the author herself – is sympathetic to the locals. When they witness and old lady pushing a handcart, who loses control and blocks traffic when the furniture she has balanced, slips off, they stop to help. When she collapses, despite the fact that Germans are not allowed in British cars, they take her home.

This memoir is largely built around Faviell’s relationship with this lady, Frau Maria Altmann, and her family. Her husband and her children; Ursula (who works for the Americans), ballet dancer, Lilli and son, Fritz. Their eldest son is missing in Russia. The author becomes very involved in all that befalls this family – their battles with the cold and lack of food, their conflicted emotions after Berlin is segregated into different districts, the horror and the despair and coping with losing the war and the aftermath of what that entailed.

Although using this one family as a way of exploring the themes of life in Berlin after the war, it did sometimes limit where the author chose to take her memoir. She was obviously a kind and sensitive person, who had no interest in revenge – quite rightly – and who did her best to understand the people she found herself among. However, comments about visiting people who were Nazi supporters (one women gives her a book about Hitler, for example) or war crimes trials, are left largely unexplored. An interesting read, but limited in scope.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

... and the young people have not forgotten that evil regime – to them it was thrilling, exciting and glorious to march with those jack-boots

There’s some fantastic material here as Faviell recalls her time living in Berlin in the immediate post-war years of 1946-8, but it’s treated often in a perfunctory manner which dampens the book. For example, she mentions the Nuremberg war trials in a throwaway manner (‘Today the Nuremberg war criminals were to be hanged’) and then we never hear of either the trials or the executions again, nor how she or anyone else felt about them. It’s the same with regard to the return of POWs and displaced persons, with the de-nazification of Germany, even the almost-silence about the concentration camps, and the re-emergence of fascism.

The atmosphere of ruin and deprivation is conveyed with more strength, especially at the start as the Altmanns, a German family befriended by Faviell, are starving and without heating, held together by one daughter selling herself for precious cigarettes, currency for the black market (‘ “I live on my sisters,” he said bitterly. “If I were a pretty girl as they are, or even a pretty boy, I could earn enough once or twice in a week” ‘).

I would have liked more self-reflection in the narrative, more historical and intellectual heft, generally more cohesion: all the same, for a brief ground-level view of Berlin from the perspective of a completely ordinary woman this is certainly worth reading.

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating and painful look at Berlin after WWII from the perspective of the wife of a British official (who is, oddly, rarely mentioned). A must read for those interested in the growth of post-war communism. I was reminded of Tippy's angst in Janet Lambert's Little Miss Atlas but (a) Tippy was mostly having fun/falling in love and (b) she was not tough enough to survive what these young women went through. As I am also reading The Women in the Castle, it was interesting to consider how much better off those characters were being away from the city.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read several books on World War Two depicting the years leading up to and covering the war itself, but this was a new perspective I hadn’t explored in that it recounts the aftermath of Germany’s surrender and life in and around Berlin between autumn 1946 and autumn 1953. The author lived in Germany with her husband who served in the British Control Commission of Germany (CCG) during these years.

“Poor bear, he must dance to every tune.” This is a poignant summary of Olivia Faviell Lucas’ memior. The phrase relates to Germany as a conquered nation caught between the allied powers – Britain, Russia, Canada, and the United States – as they all strove to gain control over the rebuilding of Berlin. Although the book doesn’t get much into the Cold War era, it does provide a glimpse into how it got started with different zones and Russia’s indoctrination of the people, which led to the divide between East and West Germany.

The element of the story I enjoyed the most was reading about the German perspective of what it was like to be a conquered nation as told through the family of Frau Altmann and other surviving women that the author met. The tragedies of war long surpass the battlefield, and we see this brought out in the Altmann family.

I appreciated the author’s style of writing where she depicted the terrible conditions for the Berliners without going into graphic detail. I think a mother’s point-of-view was good in this regard because she did not stoop to sordid descriptions of the prostitution that took place nor did she go into gory details of the cold and starvation that killed so many of the survivors. Those elements are clearly in the book, but are somewhat softened by the author’s tone, and her ability to counter the devastation with compassionate acts of people regardless of their nationality.

I highly recommend the book especially if you haven’t read about what life was like in Germany after the war.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but at times quite harrowing memoir of the years the author spent in Berlin just after the war. She found the city in a terrible state when she arrived, in ruins and full of homeless starving people. She made friends with a family called the Altman’s, and these are the most important people in the book. Wise, frail old Herr Altman, the saintly Frau Altman , and their children, delicate Lilli, who is a ballet dancer, the spirited Ursula, who will do whatever she needs to to obtain food and clothing, and fanatical Fritz, desperate for a cause to support. We follow the fortunes of the Altman’s amid the changing fortune of Berlin, torn apart by the various allied powers, but slowly rising from the wreckage.

[Susan in NC · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. After reading the author’s gripping, harrowing yet at times humorous and touching account of life in the Blitz (A Chelsea Concerto), I wanted to read this post war memoir.

This was actually Faviell’s first book, her account of life among the ruins of Berlin, where she is stationed with her civil servant husband as part of Allied Occupation. As her military driver, “Stampie” drives her through the ruins, she spots an elderly, frail German woman struggling with a loaded handcart of possessions. They tumble to the ground and no one helps her; drivers honk and yell for her to get out of the way. The author makes her driver stop, so they can assist the lady, who seems too weak from hunger to carry on; she insists on walking on, but collapses. At this point, rules or no rules (Allied cars are not supposed to transport Germans), she is taken up into the car and driven to her much-damaged home.

This is the author’s first meeting with Frau Maria Altmann, and they become good friends. The author writes about the devastation of Berlin, and damage wrought on this family in particular - the starvation, the cold, little electricity, coal, paid work (Germans must be “deNazified” before they can get a job, unless they can pay a hefty fine).

Faviell learns through the Altmann family that the daughters support the family now; ethereal beauty Lilli can pursue her ballet career because the opera is in the Russian zone, and they are happy to patronize the arts; lively, vivacious Ursula, the older sister, works in the house of four American GIs, and gets food, clothes, cigarettes. The elderly father used to be a bank executive, but is now sickly and has a weak heart; his wife is serene, dignified and educated, as he is, and trying to hold the family together and maintain prewar standards. Fritz, the spoiled youngest, is sullen and dreams of the glory days in the Hitler youth, but he is the apple of his mother’s eye and can do no wrong.

This was very interesting and mentioned events like the Nuremberg trials, and the blockade, but as it was written in the 1950s and the events were fairly recent history, I think the author was trying to show how an actual family suffered in the aftermath of the war. I learned much more about the Blitz from her account of life as a nurse volunteer in Chelsea, and in this book about life in Berlin in the years immediately after the war, which I’d never read about. The first half was gripping and sad, especially about the conditions of the people among the shortages, destruction, and freezing cold. It was startling to read of the lavish entertainments put on by the four Allied powers, surrounded by so much misery and want.

The second half, as the Russians become more obstreperous in their demands, and knowing what we know as modern readers about the division to come, Berlin Wall, Cold War, etc., was chilling and tense, even as Faviell tries to maintain ties with Frau Altmann and the rest of the Berlin families she tries to support. A heartbreaking, but engrossing memoir.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read quite a few books about WW Two, and some about the aftermath in Britain, but not from the aftermath in Germany, as this one is. I had not realised that the situation was as bad as this book describes. My father in law was out there just after the war and I remember him saying how the people had big stacks of paper money but it was worth next to nothing and couldn't even buy a loaf of bread with it. I knew Berlin was in ruins, but didn't know how bad the conditions of the people were.
I found this book very informative and well written, keeping my interest all the way through.

[Dianne McMahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story based on one of the authors life experiences,taking place just after the end of WWII.
Her husband was a High ranking officer in the British Army and was transferred to West Berlin just after the War.
She helped many of the homeless and the hungry by getting items on the black market with the help of her driver.

This story focuses primarily on one family,that she got very attached too.
This book gives a much better look at the after War devastation,than many I have read.
Grab a copy and prepare to enjoy.

[Mrs]

Really interesting account of post WW2 life in Berlin by the wife of a civil servant posted to the British Administration, through the story of the Altmann family, impactful and horrifying.
The deprivations that the people of Berlin lived under. The treatment of women by Russian occupiers. The uneasy relationships between the 4 different occupying countries, and between the occupiers and the Germans. The youth movements set up by the Russians to form a new “peoples” secret police. So much information told through the story of one family, by Faviell who befriended and tried to help them.

[Renate Deutsche Oma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dancing Bear by British author Frances Faviell (pen name of Olivia Faviell Lucas) is a first person perceptive portrait of Berlin’s post WW2 decisive years 1946 – 1949 and includes an epilogue of Berlin in Autumn 1953 (time of Ernst Reuter’s Funeral). While France’s husband Richard was posted in Berlin as a senior civil servant in the post-war British Administration and living in the British zone of West Berlin, she befriended the Altmann Family.

Berlin was divided into four sectors by Allies and many buildings and shelters had notices: Forbidden to Germans or No entrance for Germans. As in the board game Halma each Power played against the other. Add to this power play the Black Market, Nazi and Communist teachings, rationing of food and electricity, deportation, cold, hunger and the Berlin Airlift (1948 – 1949).

The Dancing Bear is a moving memoir describing Berlin in defeat through the eyes of defeated Berliners and the eyes of the victors (mainly British, American, and Russian). Frances Faviell was a compassionate woman. When she saw a need, she helped (not being thwarted by authority of any kind). During these trying times The Black Berlin Bear danced to many a tune.

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a disappointing follow-up to her excellent earlier memoir. I think because it's more introspective in scope, although the detail of post-war Berlin is interesting; I found myself puzzling over the relationship between Faviell and the Berlin family she befriends, in particular her motives in documenting their traumas, the ethics of doing so, and so exhaustively.

[Sandy McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in Berlin during the Occupation by France, American, Britain and Russia following World War 2.
This is a well written and informative memoir, although quite distressing at times.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Frances Faviell's "The Dancing Bear" which was written with regards to her experiences in post World War 2, Germany. Her young son John and herself had followed her husband who had a high post in the British Government sector. I wonder how much literary license was taken in her account of the Altmanns, it seemed to me that it probably really stuck to the truth. I found this story fascinating because unlike other stories of the war, the post war troubles were very significant and just as difficult for the Allies and Germany. Faviell has an ear to the ground and is able to really see what is happening and also help. The Allies and the distancing Russians looking to gain points and discredit the other powers at those early years is incredible. Faviell arrives in 1946 and stayed there for years. Her observations and especially the Altman family shows all the suffering and their resilience.

Story in short- The Altmanns are barely making ends meet and for this they rely on their two daughters.


➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
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Picking herself up immediately she ascertained that her goods were still intact, and began trying helplessly to lift the heavy articles. Passers-by stopped to gaze curiously at her, vehicles held up by the furniture in their path began a crescendo of hooting horns and klaxons, shouts and jeers were hurled at her from every side, but no one attempted to help her as she
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tugged unavailingly at the sewing machine. Our own British driver, Stampie, was not with me, the car being driven by a German who was rocking with laughter at this spectacle. Sliding back the panel of glass which separated us I said furiously, “Why don’t you help her instead of laughing?” “I!” spluttered the man, “I? Why should I help her?” I was too angry to argue with one of a race whose complete disregard for each other shocked me, so I got
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out and went to the old woman’s assistance. The traffic policeman, seeing the Union Jack on the car, immediately came over, saluted me and shouted to some onlookers to lend a hand. My driver had rather shamefacedly rushed after me, imploring me not to lift anything, and eagerly took my place. Soon there were too many helpers, and the things were piled neatly again on the cart.
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“Frau Altmann,” I said quietly, “you are very exhausted; let your son see to these things. Get in the car and let me drive you to your home.”

❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert ❌❌

It is not surprising but truly sad that Fritz had reported his mother's activities in helping some Jewish people that were friends. She had not known her son had reported her and even after she saw things for how they were and forgave him, though her husband could not and became extremely ill after hearing this. Frau Altmann was such a strong character and even though she centered on the men of her life, she did care for her daughters but her sons were everything. I love her faith and her attitude on politics, not getting so wound up in it all but doing all she could to make things better. I loved Faviell's caring nature and her spunk. I felt so badly after Lilli died and wondered why she could not approach her sister or mother about being pregnant. Maybe she would have thought it hopeless, but I am sure her mother and sister would have supported her. I wonder what her lover really thought of it all? I loved Ursula, she was my favorite character because she did what she had to do and was unapologetic, yet she had wished it were different. I also was happy that Joe could give her so much and love too, I wonder if his love brought her to love him too. Max's attitude about woman needing to be pure and not expressing his love for Ursula clearly made it easier for her to decide to marry Joe. Would she have stayed with him if he wanted to marry her? I think she might have but again she was tried and when she came back years later hearing Max has been in jail and taking up the Nazi ideology again, I think she was glad of her choice. Fritz becoming a communist was upsetting but he seemed to need another political ideology to hang on and his recruiting young boys was disappointing. Stampie was a good guy and such a wonderful man who helped so many!



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As his mother hesitated the youth said firmly, “Germans are forbidden to ride in Occupational cars—the gnädige Frau will get into trouble.” There was the faintest sneer in his voice although his eyes met mine squarely now.
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I was on my way to the Forces’ Study Centre in Reichsstrasse where I was helping at the improvised school run for the British children by British Troops Berlin, and it was too early for the class which I was to take there. The face of Frau Altmann attracted me in a way I could not explain. I wanted to see more of her, and I did. We had not gone more than two hundred metres or so when the little figure in its much too thin coat crumpled in a heap on the roadway, and this time she didn’t pick herself up. My driver was out of the car as quickly as I was, the son made little objection when I told them to lift her into the car. He gave me their address, which was quite near, and said he hoped his father would be in to admit us. He couldn’t accompany us, as if he were to leave the handcart unattended for even a few minutes, everything would be stolen.
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“Does your mother often faint?” I asked, for Frau Altmann was quite unconscious. He nodded. Apparently she had collapsed several times recently. “She’s not really ill,” he said shortly; “she’s hungry. She gives all the food to us—she won’t eat herself.”
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I was sorry that I had asked it. I should have remembered that
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there was no fuel except for the Occupation before he gently told me that they had none. We covered her with some blankets and I returned to the car for my brandy flask. It was becoming all too common to see people collapsing in the streets from hunger and I always carried brandy.
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The sergeant was right. They were tough. And with no books, equipment or materials of any kind it taxed one’s resources to keep them interested. They had arrived before the Education Authorities had
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made any proper arrangements for them, and the Army with a commendable lack of red tape had improvised this school for them. They came from every type of home and from various types of schools. There was only one thing they all knew, the sergeant told me, and that was father’s rank.

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I was still thinking of Frau Altmann when the sergeant told me after the class that, the Major wanted to see me in his study, and over tea I told him of the incident. He said that as I had been so impressed with her English and her face, it was possible that he could find her some teaching. “That is, of course, providing that she wasn’t an active member of the Nazi party,” he added.
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Somehow I didn’t think Frau Altmann had been a member of any party—but one never knew. I was already learning to my surprise that there had apparently been very few Nazis anywhere. They just did not exist. If it was pointed out to the Germans that the Allies had a complete list of the party members in their possession, they would shrug their shoulders and say glibly that of course they had to belong, but, of course, yes, that just didn’t mean a thing.
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The Berliners, having been looted, starved, cowed and raped
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by the Mongol Russians’ conquering army, had been astounded that with the arrival of the British and Americans there had been no sackings, no shootings and no raping. Instead they had been made to help in the appalling and dreary task of restoring plumbing and drainage, and clearing up the debris left after the Battle of Berlin.
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The German children, who had been little starving savages, roaming in hordes in the ruins, were now becoming human again, and this, said the Major, was also largely due to our troops who were wonderful with them. The children could be seen everywhere with the men,
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hanging onto their arms, riding on their backs, munching their chocolate and chewing their gum, and showing not the slightest fear, but rather a great trust in the British and American soldiers.

*** I had assumed that the narrator was a man but it becomes evident that she is married and teaching at a school for boys that the British started in the British sector. The war is over and the occupation of Germany begins. While driving to the school, she see a starving older female that looks like she is going to collapse, the lady and her son refuse a ride because it is forbidden. She follows them and after the lady actually collapses, she takes her home in her car. The poverty for many is extreme.

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“All loot!” said the German train attendant dourly. “You won’t see a piece of metal left in Berlin.” I reminded him of the looting Germany had done in Russia and asked if he had been in any of the German-occupied countries. He had been in Norway and in Holland, and had sent home a few things, furs and clothes, to his family. “But that’s different.” he said firmly.

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He soon proved how true this was. In any domestic crisis one could rely on Stampie to come to the rescue with anything from a soup tureen to a clockwork train, which he provided with the minimum of trouble and expense. It was he who took me round Berlin pointing out the four sectors and all the ruins with an almost ghoulish glee until he noticed how it upset me . . . then he would suggest taking me to his Mess for a “pick-me-up” as he said.
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“Doesn’t it give you any satisfaction or pleasure to be riding down the Kurfürstendamm as one of the Conquering Powers?” he had asked with a quirk of one eyelid. “None,” I replied shortly—and it was true. I had come to Germany prepared to hate the Germans, wanting vengeance for the loss of many friends, and for our own Chelsea home which had been blitzed. I and my unborn son had lain in its ruins.
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It was curious to find that one was filled only with horror and despair at the depths to which civilization could sink.
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“Sehr Geehrte Gnädige Frau,” it ran, “please accept my most heartfelt thanks for your kind
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help yesterday. I stupidly did not ask your name. I also thank you a thousand times for the parcel of tea, milk and sugar, and the biscuits. God will show me some way to repay you. “Maria Altmann.” I asked Stampie if she had been able to make some tea. “They were boiling the kettle with some wood which Fritz found in the Grunewald,” he replied. “I’ll look in again tomorrow and see how things are. I wish you could have seen her
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face when she opened your parcel—she burst into tears.”

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I asked if Fritz was the only son of the Altmanns. There was
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another older son missing in Russia, and two daughters, said Stampie. They were both extremely pretty, and the little one, Lilli, who danced at the Staatsoper Ballet, was a real beauty.

*** Our narrator has come to be with her husband in Berlin and brought their young son, John with her. Stampie is the German that works for her husband. The lady that fainted is Maria Altmann is a relative of Stampie's friend. Lilli Altmann is the youngest daughter.

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We chatted of pre-war Berlin, and the present-day troubles, of the food problems and the unemployment position. They were rather guarded—they didn’t know me yet, I was the wife of an Occupation official; they had to be careful. One got the impression, though, that they had all learned to be careful of their tongues, and afterwards when I knew them better I found this was so—that in the last fateful months of the war the Gestapo had been ruthless.
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I changed the subject. I knew from my husband that Stampie went on an occasional “blind”—and
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and I concluded that it was probably with Hermann. Hermann had been an ardent Nazi and was waiting to get his de-nazification through before he could find employment. “There’s such a queue that Hermann’ll have to wait a long time—and it’s no use telling him to save up the money to pay the fine,” Stampie said gloomily. No one could be employed by the Allies until he or she had been “de-nazified.” I was always hearing this word, and after the
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whole complicated business had been explained to me I agreed with Stampie that it was a lot of nonsense, and that anyone could just pay the fine imposed by the Court and still remain a Nazi at heart. I had soon discovered that Stampie, although constantly chiding me for becoming upset at the misery round me and my inability to help more than a few sufferers, was himself supporting several whole families. His Black Market activities indeed
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were done solely for this purpose and did not benefit him at all. He could not bear to see suffering any more than I could. “Don’t take on so,” he would beg me; “you can’t help it—there’s nothing you can do.”

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A small plump girl with curly blonde hair, her fat legs encased in white gaiters and wearing a white fur coat, came running in at her mother’s call. Heidi curtsied to me and solemnly greeted John. “Here are the dogs, John,” said the Baroness, pulling two tiny golden puppies from a capacious bag. “The mother had five. But of course she could not feed them.

[Elsbeth Kwant]

Whatan unexpected book. The dancing bear tells the story of Berlin between the end of the war and the building of the wall. The wife of a Britiah civil servant befriends a German family, whose lives represent the different turns of fate occupation brought. It is beautifully written - somehow very reminiscent of Ngaio Marsh's Troy Alleyn, a sensitive painter with a good heart and strong mind.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author was an artist married to an official from the British contingent of the Allied occupation in Berlin and they lived in the city for some years and visited it later. She recorded her own impressions of Berlin and also befriended some Berliners, particularly the Altmann family.
She was not an investigative reporter or a historian and this book is superficial as a historical account, but it does give a first- and second-hand experience of life in Berlin after the end of the war and shows what the Berliners had to do to survive.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a memoir about living in Berlin in the aftermath of 1945, written by a British woman whose husband is connected to the British administration. It is very well-done -- she is looking back from only a little distance (it was published in 1954) and trying to describe what she saw and how she felt about it, the ways she judged things at the time and whether or not she felt like those judgements held up. She doesn't shy away from suffering, but is not graphic in the details, while still providing a lot of concrete details -- there's a lot of texture to her writing. It wasn't always an easy book, but I am really glad that I read it -- it made a window onto a very specific moment in history.

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sad but exquisite

Better than Chelsea Concerto, the horror of losing. This peace bungled only slightly less than the first war. Always the children paying the price.

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just read “A Chelsea Concerto”, the author’s last book about living through the Blitz, it seemed logical to read this, her first, about post war Berlin. Photos of the destruction from the Allied bombardment may be familiar but whilst we might know the basics, this memoir drives home the living conditions and mixed feelings about being a conquered people at the heart of the Nazi nation.

When the author joins her husband on his posting to Berlin, she is shocked by the extent of the destruction and, after helping Frau Altman struggling in with a handcart in an icy street, quickly becomes involved with her family who are living in the wrecked remains of their old home. They are surviving on the daughters’ wages, particularly those of Ursula who is not adverse to sleeping with an American to get a new coat and is dealing on the black market with her brother, Fritz.

The black market and prostitution thrived because it was the only way the Berliners could survive. The winter of 1946 was particularly brutal. This contrasts harshly with the opulence of the entertainment and receptions offered amongst the occupying nations and with the surprising night life in the city’s bars where the Allied soldiers mixed with the locals

The memoir concentrates on the Altman family, who the author and her driver, Stampie, befriend and care for - it’s clear their efforts extend to others too. Slowly, faced with the new reality, the family breaks apart, but through it all Frau Altman remains constant in her Christian faith and her sense of what is right. The reader with surely come to care for them too.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Chelsea Concerto Frances Faviell's memoir about her harrowing and exciting adventures during the Blitz, was pure drama. I was constantly both amazed and on the edge of my seat. The Dancing Bear, which was written first, is Frances Faviell's memoir of her years in Berlin directly after the war ended, up to and including the Berlin Airlift. And it's more romance than drama. Faviell becomes intertwined with the Altmans, a German family just this side of starvation. They've been betrayed by Nazism and devastated by the the bombing, and then raping and pillaging by the Red Army, of their beloved city. Faviell spins out the tale of each family member: the old German Herr Altman with one foot in the past and one in the grave; the ultra religious Frau Altman who babies and favors her son over her daughters; lovely, ethereal Lilli, a ballet dancer with a secret; Ursula, made hard by the life she must lead and the things she must do to feed her family; and finally Fritz, hater of the invaders, an ardent Hitler Youth who slowly turns to Communism as the answer. In and out of this family's lives winds other characters. The events are not as gripping as those found in Chelsea Concerto: starvation and freezing during the coldest winter in a century are not quite a page turning as bombs exploding all around, but still moving all the same. Read Chelsea first, then move on immediately to Bear.

[Ms Jayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except The Third Man, I have never read anything about the immediate aftermath of WWII in Germany and the effect on the citizens of the collapse of Nazism so this was a real eye opener. It's a fascinating subject and Faviell delineates the conflict between the four occupying powers in Berlin: Britain, France, the US and the Russians and explores the experience of and ordinary German family caught between different forces. The book also indicates the different factors which led to the division of Germany.

Faviell's prose is clear and engaging and she narrates the horrors of Berlin in the winter of 1946 with the same matter of fact directness she gave to the Blitz in her book A Chelsea Concerto. The intense cold, destroyed buildings, starvation, bodies unburied, and some comment on the rape of German women by the Russian army as they tore through Berlin are all described. However, Faviell doesn't linger on horror or show disgust. She was obviously a very compassionate woman as well as perceptive.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dancing Bear was a surprisingly insightful memoir by the wife of a member of the British occupying forces in Germany after World War Two. The writer describes her actions and the atmosphere, as well as the people she meets. What was most interesting were her thoughts on young men like Fritz and Max--were they lost to humanity because of their childhood in the Nazi years of indoctrination, and would always be looking for a strong leader and civil structure (whether left or right wing) in order to feel valued?

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating

It was difficult to read this in parts, so real did the people in it seem to me. It is a very raw and honest insight not just into the defeaters and defeated but into the characters of the people involved. It’s not popular to be sympathetic to those who had been an enemy but despite having been bombed out and lost friends,the author manages to see passed the events that had occurred and just see the people involved without bias.

[Janet Cardillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didnt know it was true

I gave this story 5 stars because it was well written and held my interest. It covered a period of time after Germany s surrender from the German point of view. Very interesting to read about how poor the German people were at a time when the allies had surpluses. It is troubling anytime one sees greed overtake human suffering. The intimacy with which the author relays the characters personalities is very skillful.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

had no idea

I won’t get into dissecting this book. All I will say is that I have never really thought of what happened to the Germans in the immediate aftermath of their WWII defeat. This book opened my eyes to some of their hardships and the struggles of some Allies to occupy it.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating story of life from a British viewpoint in Berlin in the months after the end of WW2, this book made me laugh, and it made me cry. The description of the dreadful hardships faced by Berliners was both an eye-opener and a warning against the horrors of wars in the future.

[Sandybeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into life in post WW2 Berlin. This was a brilliant, educational and heart wrenching tale of friendship, hope, injustice and betrayal all in one; human life really. I am looking forward to reading more of the author’s work.

[Lisa of Hopewell]

I learned of this book via these posts:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2023...

https://booksplease.org/2023/11/13/no...