Philip Boehm Livres

Publié pour la première fois en 1954, le récit anonyme, au jour le jour, de la vie quotidienne des habitants de la capitale du 3e Reich lors de la bataille de Berlin et des premières semaines de l'Occupation. Un témoignage sans fard, qui raconte la misère, la famine, les viols, la terreur et la lutte impitoyable pour la survie. [SDM].

Germans flee the besieged city of Danzig in 1945. Poles driven out of eastern regions controlled by the Russians move into the homes hastily abandoned by their previous inhabitants. In an area of the city graced with beech trees and a stately cathedral, the stories of old and new residents intertwine: Hanemann, a German and a former professor of anatomy, who chooses to stay in Danzig after the mysterious death of his lover; the Polish family of the narrator, driven out of Warsaw; and a young Carpathian woman who no longer has a country, her cheerful nature concealing deep wounds. Through his brilliantly defined characters, stunning evocation of place, and memorable descriptions of a world that was German but survives in Polish households, Chwin has created a reality that is beyond destruction.

A tour of Germany after reunification provides anecdotes of the West German people, an East German baker, Bavarian yodelers, Stalinist functionaries, and Western capitalists