German

Germany Diary 1945-1946 - Notes of a Red Army Soldier

The Second World War radically changes the course of Vladimir Gelfand's life. At the front, the young Ukrainian Jew experiences violence, destruction and the threat of death, along with comradeship and betrayal; later he encounters unfamiliar places in occupied Germany. In his diaries from 1945 and 1946 he records his continuing struggle with a military life he had come to hate. He writes about fighting, politics and the everyday realities of occupation. He visits a tailor, buys on the black market, goes to pubs, learns photography and has his own complicated experiences with women. He is both a sensitive observer and a participant, and does not conceal acts of revenge or looting. His diaries form a unique chronicle of the early Soviet occupation of Germany.

Publication rights belong to Aufbau Verlag except for Russia and Ukraine; Swedish rights were sold to Ersatz.

Elke Scherstjanoi examined and organized the surviving papers for publication, selected the material, added letters, and supplied commentary. For the first time German readers could encounter the wartime diary of a Red Army officer. The diary shows how a larger historical narrative emerges from countless details of everyday life.

"What makes this diary unique is the unfiltered view from the other side of the front, a perspective that is unusual and also challenges our preconceptions." - ARD, Kulturreport, 20 March 2005.

This was the first private diary of a Red Army officer to be published in German. Its author, Vladimir Gelfand, a young Ukrainian Jew, wrote under the immediate impact of the fighting for Berlin and his experiences during the first year of occupation. As an unusually candid chronicler he records what generally remained hidden: indiscipline within Soviet ranks, revenge, the taking of trophies and crimes against civilians. Rarely had German readers been given such direct access to the thoughts and feelings of a victor from Stalin's army after Germany's collapse.

"Gelfand writes about himself and reveals a great deal about the Germans. A perspective that is as fascinating as it is disturbing." - Stefan Schmitz, journalist and editor of Willy Peter Reese's memoir.

At the front Gelfand experiences violence, destruction and the constant threat of death, as well as comradeship and betrayal. At the end of April 1945 he enters Berlin with the leading units of the Red Army as a victor. At first without a permanent assignment, he looks for ways to escape the dreariness of barracks life. Young, good-looking and not inclined to violence, he establishes friendly contacts with civilians. His frank notes show that encounters between Germans and Soviet soldiers were shaped not only by hatred, contempt and violence. Gelfand disliked military life and resented the strict ban on private contacts with Germans and on independent excursions.

He fulfills his duties in the transport section of the occupation administration and takes his obligations as a Party member seriously. But after the murderous war he finally wants "Freedom! To live freely, think, work and enjoy life." This desire repeatedly brings him into conflict with superiors and comrades, who accuse him of indiscipline and dismiss him as an aesthete. After returning home he was unable to realize his plan to become a writer and create a major novel about the war.

In her afterword Elke Scherstjanoi traces the stages of Gelfand's life and his long, contradictory struggle to come to terms with his wartime experience.