Surviving Berlin

by Karl M. von der Heyden

Surviving Berlin is a rare first-hand account of the tumultuous Nazi and post-war years in Germany, and one man’s poignant journey to finding the unvarnished truth.

In the most improbable place—the archives of a southern American university, twenty-one-year-old Karl von der Heyden discovered the answer to a question that had plagued him as he came of age in his native Germany: What had his parents known—how much could they have known—about the atrocities that the Nazis had committed?

As a student at Duke University in 1957, von der Heyden found issues of the Nazi party’s newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter (The People's Observer), dating from 1932 to the end of the Second World War, with its editorials blatantly justifying the organized anti-Semitism; slowly he was able to fill in the gaps that had developed in the silence of his father and mother’s generation.

In the aftermath of the war, very few Germans spoke about what had happened, and when they allowed themselves to do so, they seemed to lump the horrors of Nazism in with those of wartime survival. Or they placed the blame on Hitler alone. Once Hitler committed suicide, the adults ostensibly moved on psychologically, leaving it to the next generation, the Kriegskinder, children of war, to bear the shame for the heinous crimes of their country’s past, and for their parents’ possible participation—whether it was no more than a tacit show of acceptance for the regime. For von der Heyden, his own regret was particularly acute with the knowledge that his father had been a member of the Nazi Party.

Equipped with new insights, von der Heyden was equally stunned to see a “parallel injustice” between the experiences of the Jews in Nazi Germany and of the blacks in the segregated South—the North Carolina university itself did not admit African-Americans until 1963.

At once affecting and thought-provoking, Surviving Berlin is a remarkable story, whose themes are as profound today as they were seventy years ago.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Memoir, World War II

204 pages, Hardcover

Published June 20, 2017

About the author

Karl M. von der Heyden was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1936, and made his way to America in 1957, upon receiving a full scholarship to study at Duke University. After graduating from Duke and obtaining an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, von der Heyden went on to become an accomplished corporate leader, serving as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Executive Officer, and Vice Chair of the Board at a variety of companies, including H.J. Heinz Company, PepsiCo, and RJR Nabisco. He also served as an independent director on a dozen large publicly held companies, including the New York Stock Exchange, DreamWorks Animations, AstraZeneca, and Macy’s. Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, he is a former trustee of Duke University, the YMCA of Greater New York, and other nonprofit organizations. He is Chair Emeritus of the American Academy in Berlin where he was a founding trustee of the cultural institution in 1998. He lives in New York City, with his wife, Mary Ellen.

Reviews

[Karl Heyden]

Karl von der Heyden has written two fascinating autobiographies wrapped in one. The first is of his childhood years in Nazi Germany, as seen through the eyes of a youngster trying to live a normal life. The second is of a young immigrant’s discovery of America, and his growing love for his adopted new home, even as he discovers the racial injustices of the South that remind him of the anti-Semitic racism of his native land under Nazism. He belongs to that generation of young Germans who, years later, first confronted their Nazi parents with the hard questions of ‘what did you know, what did you do, and why did you go along?’. Insightful and well-written, Surviving Berlin eloquently raises questions that continue to have relevance today. It’s a book you will not want to put down.
—Michael Blumenthal, former United States Secretary of the Treasury

Karl von der Heyden has done a signal service to those of us who wonder what it was like to grow up in Germany under Nazi rule. His intimate account of life as a Berliner coming of age during World War II and its aftermath is a reminder in these troubled times that averting our eyes from racist intolerance has devastating personal consequences.
—Martin Indyk, Executive Vice President of the Brookings Institution and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel

In this lively and fascinating book von der Heyden tells us how, as a student, he tried to come to grips with German anti-Semitism (including that of his parents). Surviving Berlin is a poignant and – I may say as a member of the same generation with a similar trajectory – authentic account of how Nazism affected a young German as he grew up and during his subsequent life in the United States.
—Gerhard Casper, former President of Stanford University

In this compelling story of his youth in Berlin, Karl von der Heyden treats America as a gift that changed his life. What comes clear however is that the roles are actually the reverse. Karl was a gift to America. The can-do optimism of immigrants, especially gifted ones like von der Heyden, powers our country.
—Amity Shlaes, Presidential Scholar, the King's College, and author of The Forgotten Man and CoolidgeEndFragment

[Zach Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short read and a terrific book from author Karl M. von der Heyden. Karl was only a young boy when he lived in Germany during World War II. The first part of his book discusses what it was like to live in Germany under the Third Reich as a child, and how its fall affected his life and the life of his family. The rest of the book details Karl's post-WWII life, and how Karl and many German children like him, struggled as they grew older to cope and understand how his own parents could have supported Hitler's regime and the Nazi Party.

However, the most important lesson Karl learned in life, is still hauntingly relevant in America in 2025. Karl writes that his background has taught him to be "skeptical of extremists, be they political ideologues or religious fanatics” and that he shutters “at the expression of too much overt patriotism, flag waving, or talk of ‘exceptionalism’ of this or that country.” This is a book should be required reading in school for every American student.

[Athurmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received Surviving Berlin as part of a GoodReads giveaway. This autobiography is an oral history of Karl M. von der Heyden. It is well written and honest. The author takes a hard look at his family, himself, and Germany as a whole following World War II. The story tells of what life was like for ordinary Germans following the war. While interesting, it lacks intrigue. Half of the book is about life in the US, and I felt like there were areas that the author could have further explored about post-war Germany.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surviving Berlin is the oral history from the perspective of a young child living from the pre and post war Berlin and the challenges the times presented. The family suffered hardships, but since they weren't Jewish, they weren't targeted by the Nazis. It was only later when he moved to America that Karl von der Heyden questioned his family and their ignorance of the Nazi atrocities. In some ways he also tries to compare attitudes the American south to Nazi Germany. Surviving Berlin was an interesting look into a the turbulent times of WWII.

[Judie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting autobiography of a boy growing up in Nazi Germany and his education in the United States. Honest, straight forward and well worth reading.

[Burwell56 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book. People today don't realize what life was like for ordinary people in Germany not only during WWII but also after the war in the divided city of Berlin. It was interesting to read about the experience of a child during the war and then the young man as he goes to college in America.