Marta Hillers

Marta Hillers (1911–2001) was a German journalist and the author of the autobiographical Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin), her diary from 20 April to 22 June 1945 in Berlin during and after the Battle of Berlin. The book details her experiences as a victim of rape during the Red Army occupation.

Biography

Hillers studied at the Sorbonne, and later traveled extensively throughout Europe. She spoke French and Russian in addition to her native German. She was a professional journalist, and made a name for herself as a Nazi propagandist.^[1] In 1945, she was stranded in Berlin as the Soviets invaded it.

According to Marta Hillers' memoirs that were first anonymously published in 1954 in English she was repeatedly raped and otherwise violated by elements of the Red Army as they took control of Berlin .^[2] The diary was written at first during the fall of Berlin, and it differs in some extent from the subsequently published version. One acquaintance of Hillers, German author Kurt Marek, published the book in the United States.

Hillers married in the 1950s, moved to Switzerland,^[2] abandoning journalism, but not before republishing her memoirs in German in 1959. However, this was in French-speaking Geneva, where Hillers had now settled. The memoirs were met with controversy, given the propaganda value at a time of ever greater Cold War tensions. However, the memoirs did not sell well^{[citation needed]}, maybe because it was felt^{[by whom?]} that Hillers' work brought shame on German women, or maybe because it did not strike an emotional chord with readers at the time. It is even possible that so many Germans had heard or lived similar stories of horror that they did not want to read it once again^{[citation needed]}.

Marta Hillers was never in the public eye, not agreeing to a new edition in her lifetime, after she was accused of besmirching the honor of German women^{[citation needed]}, or of stirring anti-Communist propaganda^{[citation needed]}.

It was only after Hillers' death in June 2001 at the age of 90 that Eine Frau in Berlin could be published again. It became a best seller in 2003, given the stronger interest sixty years on in social conditions at the time^{[citation needed]}.

Jens Bisky the literary editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote in 2003 that Hillers may have been the anonymous author, and produced a profile of her life, mentioning that she was a journalist who worked on magazines and newspapers during the Nazi era, and who had also been a small-time propagandist for the Third Reich writing a navy recruiting brochure, but that she was probably not a member of the party.^[3][4]

Marek notes in his afterword that the book is based on a typescript based on handwritten notes, which were in the possession of his wife after his death in 1971. At the time of the Bisky revelations in 2003 Christian Esch writing in the Berliner Zeitung pointed to differences in the editions and the Marek notes and said that if the diary was to be accepted as an fully authentic work the originals would have to be examined by experts.^[3]

Subsequently an examination of the notes was done by Walter Kempowski on behalf of the publishing house. He came to the opinion that it was a genuine diary Hiller kept at the time, though the typescript and the published book contain material not in the diary.^[5] Antony Beevor a British historian who wrote, a "magisterial book" on the Battle of Berlin, confirmed its authenticity by comparing its content with his own detailed knowledge of the period and the other primary sources he has accumulated.^[6][7]

In 2008 a film directed by Max Färberböck based on the diary, Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin, was released in Germany.^[8]

A Woman in Berlin was Marta Hillers' only major work.^[2]

See also

• Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union
• Soviet war crimes
• Expulsion of Germans after World War II

Works

• Eine Frau in Berlin, diary from 20 April to 22 June 1945, Die Andere Bibliothek Band Nr. 221, ISBN 3-8218-4534-1
• A Woman in Berlin, paperback 320 pages, Virago Press Ltd, ISBN 1-84408-112-5

Notes

1. ^ http://www.muzi.com/cc/english/00000,19931.shtml?q=10084117&cc=45913
2. ^ ^{a b c} Harding, Luke (5 October 2003). "Row over naming of rape". The Observer (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/oct/05/historybooks.germany. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Esch, Christian (25 September 2003). "Eine belanglose Person? (A Trivial person?)". Berliner Zeitung. http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2003/0925/literatur/0003/index.html. 
4. ^ Gottesmann, Christoph (11 September 2005). "letter to the editor: 'A Woman in Berlin'". New York Times: review section, p. 6.. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/books/review/11letters.html?pagewanted=all.  for the "navy recruiting brochure"
5. ^ Güntner, Joachim (19 January 2004). "Eine Frau in Berlin". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. http://www.nzz.ch/2004/01/19/fe/article9CNMS.html. 
6. ^ Halley, Janet (2008). "Rape in Berlin: Reconsidering the Criminalisation of Rape in the International Law of Armed Conflict". Melbourne Journal of International Law 9 (1): 78. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MelbJIL/2008/3.html. 
   In Footnote 70 cites:
   • Beevor, Antony (2002). The Fall of Berlin 1945. 
   In Footnote 71 cites:
   • Kempowski, Walter (20 January 2004). "Unchanging Tone: No Doubt about "A Woman in Berlin"". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 
   • Beevor, Antony (2005), "Introduction", in Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin, p. xvi 
7. ^ Beevor, Antony (25 September 2005). "Letter to the editor: A Woman in Berlin". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE4D71E31F936A1575AC0A9639C8B63. 
8. ^ Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (English title: Woman in Berlin), entry in the British Film Institute database, retrieved 15 June 2010

References

• Bisky, Jens (24 September 2003). "Wenn Jungen Weltgeschichte spielen, haben Mädchen stumme Rollen / Wer war die Anonyma in Berlin? Frauen, Fakten und Fiktionen / Anmerkungen zu einem grossen Bucherfolg dieses Sommers". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 
• Esch, Christian (25 September 2003). "Eine belanglose Person? (A Trivial person?)". Berliner Zeitung. http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2003/0925/literatur/0003/index.html. 
• Harding, Luke (5 October 2003). "Row over naming of rape author". The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1056125,00.html. 
• Götz, Aly (18 October 2003). "Ein Fall für Historiker: Offene Fragen um das Buch Eine Frau in Berlin". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 
• Kanon, Josef (14 August 2005). "review: My City of Ruins". The New York Times: book review section p. 12. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/books/review/14KANONL.html?_r=1. 
  • Gottesmann, Christoph (11 September 2005). "letter to the editor: 'A Woman in Berlin'". New York Times: review section, p. 6.. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/books/review/11letters.html?pagewanted=all. 
  • Beevor, Antony (25 September 2005). "Letter to the editor: A Woman in Berlin". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE4D71E31F936A1575AC0A9639C8B63. 
• Halley, Janet (2008). "Rape in Berlin: Reconsidering the Criminalisation of Rape in the International Law of Armed Conflict". Melbourne Journal of International Law 9 (1): 78. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/MelbJIL/2008/3.html. 

External links

• Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin imdb page of 2008 film

Persondata
Name	Hillers, Marta
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1911
Place of birth
Date of death	2001
Place of death