Essay Questions

Why does the author remain anonymous and what effect does this choice have on the chronicle?

The reason for maintaining her anonymity was largely pragmatic to begin with, as the author feared the reaction of her community and the nation as a whole once she revealed what had happened to her and the other women of Berlin during the occupation. Anonymity also protected her from reprisals from a public anxious to put the occupation years behind them who did not want to confront what they had allowed to happen to their female Berliners. Preserving anonymity also has an effect on the book itself; the events that are dealt with are so heinous and brutal that in a way the author's identity is irrelevant. She is no-one and every woman at the same time. Her name is not important because her story is the focus of her writing. Her nameless also mirrors the way in which her rapists considered her, as something less than human. Her name didn't matter to them because she was not an individual with a name but an object they used for their pleasure.

The author's pre-war relationship crumbles because of her experiences during the occupation, but it is not her own reaction to her boyfriend that makes it all unravel. Why are the couple unable to make their relationship work?

After a woman has been raped there is an understandable difficulty for them accepting physical closeness from a male, but in the author's case this is not what destroys the relationship. The difficulty in re-adjusting is on the part of the author's boyfriend. He does not want to deal with what happened in his absence and does not take kindly to her constantly bringing it into the open. He seems to subscribe to the "la la la I can't hear you" method of facing tragic or brutal events and is not at all supportive. In turn he seems to feel that she is being disloyal bony continuing to speak about something he would prefer they put behind them.

In what ways did the Russian army act differently from the author's expectations?

The main difference between expected behavior and actual behavior was that there seemed to be very little respect for it deference given to rank or authority among the soldiers. It is the author's belief that if she develops a relationship with an officer then this will in some way mark her as "his" and protect her from multiple rapists. She is wrong in this assumption and whilst the officer has the principle right to her time when he is at the apartment, when he is not at the apartment she is still considered fair game for the rest of the soldiers. This lack of hierarchy shocks her and does not represent her belief in what the Russian soldiers would be like.