The memoir describes a journalist's personal experiences during the occupation of Berlin by the Soviets at the end of World War II. She describes being gang raped by Russian soldiers and deciding to seek protection by forming a relationship with a Soviet officer; other women made similar decisions. The author described it as "sleeping for food."[1] Conditions in the city were cruel, as women had no other protection against assaults by soldiers. "...when the Woman and her neighbours go to a Soviet commander to complain about the rapes and to seek his aid in stopping them, he merely laughs."[3]
The book is known for its "unsentimental" tone in describing sexual assault[7] but, as a New York Times critic pointed out, "the rapes are by no means all of [the book]. We are also given the feeling inside a bomb shelter, the breakdown of city life and civil society, the often surreal behavior of the enemy, soldiers' arms lined with looted wristwatches, the forced labor clearing out the rubble piles that marks the beginning of the road back."[8]
