Marta Hillers
Marta Hillers is the author of the chronicle and is the "anonymous woman" whose identity is hidden until after her death. She is stoic and pragmatic, almost sacrificing herself in the present to survive into the future. She is intelligent and works out a strategy to keep herself alive although is never safe. She is the victim of not just one but multiple rapes by multiple rapists. She is reduced to doing a deal with the devil for her survival: accept rape from one man to protect herself from rape by many. Understanding that she does not want to see herself as a victim whilst she needs to stay strong she even manages to re-frame the way in which she sees her situation and thinks of her relationship with the officer as some kind of dating situation rather than as a rape, persuading herself that she is giving consent primarily to maintain the illusion of having some control. After the war ends the silence that she has kept becomes overwhelming and she wants very much for people to know what happened to the women of Berlin whilst everyone was looking the other way. She is uncomfortable with her fellow Berliners' dogged determination to continue looking the other way. Hillers is an incredibly courageous woman whose writing chronicles a period in Berlin's history that would be largely swept under the rug had it not been for the publication of her chronicle.
Petka
Petka is a Russian soldier and the first to rape the author. Because he is the forts he is the one whose violation is the most impossible to forget or overcome. He is a brutal man who takes what he wants secure in the knowledge that nobody cares about this woman or any other women in the city. He has no respect for women and believes they exist for his pleasure.
Herr Pauli
Herr Pauli is the tenant who lives in the apartment that the old woman owns and that the author is living in. He is protective of the author but not able to protect her very much and does not act as much of a deterrent when it comes to preventing her rape.
Anatol
Anatol was the Russian officer in whose rank Hillers puts her hope in but his rank is really just semantics, words on paper or stripes on his uniform. His presence does not prevent the other soldiers taking Marta but his presence does alleviate some of the day to day difficulties that she experiences in terms of hunger as he brings food and even candy for her to enjoy. He treats her far better than his fellow soldiers.
Andrei
Andrei is a revelation to Marta. Her entire experience of Russian soldiers has been negative and not just because they have repeatedly raped her. They are generally in-educated and boorish, lacking finesse or manners, and barely literate. Andrei is the opposite. He is well-read, enjoys discussing literature and theater, and likes to hear Marta's opinions as well. He is generous and brings candies as gifts. He definitely views her as a person rather than an object and is probably the most positive impression of the Russian army presented in the chronicle.
Gerd
Gerd is Marta's boyfriend from before the war. He has been deployed and although he has been mentioned in her thoughts throughout he is only present in person towards the end of the book. He is excited to come home and to see Marta but grows increasingly uncomfortable about her insistence on talking about her ordeal and finds that they are drifting apart. Whilst it is understandable that he would not want to hear about the multiple rapes his girlfriend has endured in his absence he seems less concerned about her experiences and more concerned about his own discomfort in hearing about it.
