“The (anti-Hitler) conspiracy failed,” wrote the late Willi Schlamm, himself a refugee from Nazism, nearly 30 years ago. “But the list of names of those whom a maddened Hitler hanged after the failure reads like a Gotha of Germany’s famous military families. . . . They are names which, if the truth indeed prevails, will join the short list of superior men who have not hesitated to choose their God over their race.”

What was life like for these men in the besieged enemy capital? A young Russian émigré named Marie (Missie) Vassiltchikov, who worked for the German Foreign Office, kept a diary which tells us.

Missie’s life in Berlin began well enough. In spite of somewhat straitened circumstances, the first two years of war weren’t too bad. The bombing raids were numerous but caused more discomfort than dislocation.

By the end of 1943, the situation had changed markedly. Continually subjected to heavy bombing, Berlin was a shambles. Only major exertions by its inhabitants kept a patchwork civil structure functioning amid collapsing buildings, never-ending fires, and shortages of food and manpower. That this effort was made not in spite of but because of the bombing is noted:

(22 December 1943) It looks as if these ghastly raids are intended to help by breaking the Germans’ morale, but I do not think that much can be achieved that way. Indeed they are having the contrary effect. For amidst such suffering and hardship . . . everyone seems intent only on patching roofs, propping up walls, cooking on an upturned electric iron, or melting snow to wash with. . . . The heroic side of human nature takes over and people are extraordinarily friendly and helpful.

As the plot comes together, the diary entries become more urgent:

(24 April 1944) Had a long talk with Loremarie Schoenburg. It is difficult for me to tell her that . . . her presence in Berlin endangers people who are far more involved in what is to come.

. . . and plaintive:

(16 June 1944) I often feel ashamed and frustrated at not being more deeply involved in something really worthwhile, but what can I, a foreigner, do?

. . . and telling:

(19 July 1944) The truth is that there is a fundamental difference in outlook between all of them and me: not being German, I am concerned only with the elimination of the Devil. . . . Being patriots, they want to save their country from complete destruction by setting up some interim government. I have never believed that . . . would be acceptable to the Allies, who refuse to distinguish between “good” Germans and “bad.” This, of course, is a fatal mistake on their part and we will probably all pay a heavy price for it.

When the plot failed, the Nazis were furious, and the arrests began. The pressure quickly became too great, and many famous Germans (including commanders like Rommel and von Kluge) chose suicide rather than face Gestapo “trial” and torture. It soon became imperative that those “in the know” should disperse, and Missie left Berlin in September 1944. The last months of the war she worked as a nurse in and around Vienna.

If this book seems less than analytical, one must remember that war’s first casualty was time, to write, to think. Bombing continued night after sleepless night, and much of the days’ activity was devoted to mere existence. Missie’s diary is most useful because of its vivid portrayal of wartime Berlin. It was “in the face of a Schrecklichkeit unparalleled in history” that the conspirators chose to prove their formidable courage and character.

 

[Berlin Diaries, 1940-1945, by Marie Vassiltchikov (New York: Alfred A. Knopf) $19.95]