Summary Of Woman In Berlin And We Die Alone

Woman in Berlin and We Die Alone had many similarities and differences. Anonymous and Jan had to overcome many obstacles brought forth to them by the Germans and in Jan’s case, the weather. In both books, the characters had to deal with things that made it harder for them to survive. While in a time of war, Anonymous has to deal with the Russians and Jan had to deal with the Germans. The Germans and Russians had something in common and that’s making most of the people they encounter suffer. Also, with Jan, not only did he have to hide from the Germans but he also had to do it by suffering through the snow. However, through all the challenges they faced, they overcame their obstacles by being intelligent, loyal and trustworthy, brave, and

The loyalty all started when the Norwegians, Sigurd Eskeland, Salvesen, Per Blindheim, and Jan Baalsrud. They all trusted each other to go and invade Sweden. They had to travel on a 75 foot long fishing boat equipped with a single-cylinder. It was armed with seven machine-guns with an additional machine gun for each passenger to grab in a hurry. (Howarth 13) A mission like this would require all the trust in your partners and they had that. Their trust and faith really came out when the shopkeeper had betrayed them. They thought the shopkeeper was a man they knew and can trust and they told him they came from England. However, the shopkeeper turned out to not be the man they were looking for and he revealed them to the Germans. The four Norwegians didn’t run and leave their teammates behind. They had each other’s back and three of the four men died saving each other. Later in the book when only Jan was alive, he had many random strangers helping him get from place to place safely. Marius said, “If I live, you will live, and if they kill you I will have died to protect you.”(Howarth 86) Loyalty is very strong when random strangers risk their lives to come take care of you. However, loyalty was not the only thing keeping the two characters alive but the bravery within each character

The women best bet in order to stay safe was to hide in a hidden place such as the attic or on a high floor so the soldiers are too lazy to climb up the stairs. Unfortunately, the soldiers always found anonymous. She was raped outside the door, by the steps, in a bedroom on the floor and in the bed. In the bedroom, it was three men who came in but only one raped her. Anonymous had an incident when it was more than one man at a time raping her. Consequently, when the three soldiers broke into her and the widow’s apartment, the first thing she thought of was that they were going to do a three way on her. However, she begged the man “Only one, please, please, only one.” (Anonymous 57) And that’s how she met her first rapist who would actually talk to her, Petka. Then it was Anatol and major, who actually stopped anonymous from getting raped so much because of their status and weight and strength. The thing about her that made her brave and strong in my eyes is that every time a soldier raped her she never really fought back a lot. She knew it was going to happen anyway, and if she would have fought back the soldiers might have beaten her more or been more forceful when they raped her. However, unlike other women who get raped and try to kill themselves or let that burden ruin their life, anonymous never gave up or cried in a corner and shamed