The Women's War: World War II Nonfiction

Much has been written by and about the men of the Second World War—soldiers, politicians, spies, and other figures. The full history of this “total war,” however, must necessarily include the women and young girls who endured bombings, invasion, hunger, imprisonment, and other traumas. Explore their stories in these biographies, diaries, and memoirs.

The model for James Bond's “M” and subject of Sarah Helm's A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII (Anchor: Random. 2007. ISBN978-1-4000-3140-5. pap. $16), Vera Atkins (1908–2000) was the highest-ranking woman in British intelligence. Hers was a life of deadly secrets—missions, captured operatives, and the possibility of a highly placed mole. Her biggest secret was that she was a Romanian Jew and thus technically an enemy alien. Helm's recounting of Atkins's story, including her tireless hunt for her missing agents, is a brilliant example of investigative reporting and historical research.

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City (Picador. 2006. ISBN 978-0-312-42611-8. pap. $15), translated by Philip Boehm, is the harrowing diary of an anonymous Berlin journalist who details life in the occupied city from mid-April to mid-June 1945. The unknown author's writing is intimate yet detached, as if the only way to record her ordeal is to focus on small events and lace them with liberal doses of gallows humor. She describes the daily quest for food, the desperate measures taken by women to protect their young daughters from rape, and the pragmatic decision she made to find herself a high-ranking Russian protector.

Karin Finell was six when World War II began. As she recalls in Good-bye to the Mermaids: A Childhood Lost in Hitler's Berlin (Univ. of Missouri. 2006. ISBN 978-0-8262-1690-8. $29.95), her childlike views of Hitler's glory and her Hitler Youth activities began to fragment as hunger and air raids took over her life. Finell's mother is able to protect her daughter from rape, but Finell is all too aware of the horrors that occur when the Russians capture Berlin. The occupation by Americans and the British brings some order, but hunger returns with the Berlin Blockade. Finell, her mother, and her American-raised grandmother ultimately realize that the best future for Karin is to immigrate to the United States, which she does in 1952.

Sabina Zimering and her family fled the Jewish ghetto in their Polish city of Piotrków hours before an “Aktion” occurred. That horrifying night is detailed in Hiding in the Open (North Star. 2006. ISBN 978-0-87839-171-4. pap. $14.95), as is the rest of Zimering's frightening quest to survive the war. Zimering and her sister hid for a short period with Polish friends before the girls made their way west into Germany posing as Polish Catholics and ended up working in a hotel housing German officers. The chaos of war and its effects resonate in the author's story, one she still tells, now living in Minnesota, as an advocate for peace and tolerance.

Diane Ackerman is known for her explorations of science and the senses, so war might seem an odd choice. But writing about Jan and Antonina Zabiniski, the two longtime keepers of the Warsaw zoo, in The Zookeeper's Wife (Norton. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-33306-0. pap. $14.95), she blends science and history to illuminate a little-known episode of World War II. While Jan aided the Resistance, Antonina created a “Noah's Ark” at the zoo, sheltering hundreds of Jews and Resistance members in cages meant for the animals. Ackerman draws on Antonina's extensive diaries to describe the September 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland; she also includes detailed depictions of Poland's wild forests and Nazi attempts to resurrect extinct animals in order to create pure “Aryan” species.

Karolina Lanckoronska's memoir, Michelangelo in Ravensbruck: One Woman's War Against the Nazis (Da Capo. 2008. ISBN 978-0-306-81611-6. pap. $17.50), details the privileged life this aristocrat, scholar, and Polish patriot (1898–2002) enjoyed before the terror of war set her on a new path. When the Russians invaded Poland in 1939, Lanckoronska fled to Krakow, where she spent the next three years until she was arrested by the Germans for resistance activities. Sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp, she refused the special treatment accorded her class and Christian religion, insisting that she be allowed to live with her fellow prisoners. Released in April 1945 via the Red Cross's intervention, she made her way to Rome, where she would write her memoirs, foster Polish culture, and wrestle with survivor's guilt. When she died, she bequeathed her family's art collection to her homeland so that it could be seen in a free Poland.

This column was contributed by Sarah Nagle, a Collection Development and Reference Librarian with Carver County Library in Chanhassen, MN