Rating: 
Summary: A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Review: Missie Vassiltchikov's diary is the outstanding source for anyone who wants to achieve any sort of historical empathy with the German aristocracy during the war years. As a diary rather than a memoir we feel the horror of the bombs, or of the regime, at an extraordinary proximity; as a White Russian and not a German patriot, her criticism takes less for granted and, by witnessing everything on a personal level, the acute sensations of terror and loss are not diluted by blood and guts patriotism. An extraordinary woman in extraordinary times the result is a historical source acknowledged by A. J. P. Taylor to be of first rate importance and a testament to the bravery of the German patriots who tried to carry out the July 1944 coup of incredible dignity and persuasion. Having read these diaries I will never again tolerate being told that the July plotters were nothing but a nasty military junta in embryo. Wonderful stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Lousy Book
Review: Of many books I've read on this period, this one is the worst. It could be subtitled, "How I ate and partied my way thru WWII". Shallow reminiscences of a shallow aristocrat. I've never seen so much name dropping in one place. Only valid historical narrative is in the included editorial comments. The inferrence that the writer was involved in the July 44 plot to kill Hitler is a bunch of bull, she just casually met a few of those involved, having met them at one of her many many eating and partying affairs. Total waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing, vivid piece of history
Review: One of the finest books I've ever read. I've passed it along to friends and family and they, too, have been impressed by it. The writer's fine eye for detail really brings this diary to life. Read it and ask yourself what you would have done in her place.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Perspective on Wartime Germany
Review: The author of these diaries was 23 when the war began in 1939, and canot be blamed for the rise of Nazism. She knew many German aristocrats, including ones who suffered the extreme penalty for opposing Hitler. I found fascinating the account of how life went on in aristocratic circles in Germany while bombs dropped and Hitler ran his terroristic regime. This is another view entirely from Victor Klemperer's monumental volumes entitled I Will Bear Witness, which I read with sheerest fascination on June 11, 1999, and April 7, 2000, since Missy, the author, almost seemed to bear a charmed life. But like Klemperer's diary, time seemed to move so slow as one reads, knowing that not till May 8, 1945 would the ordeal end--and not even then because life in Germany postwar was no bed of roses for some time. If one considers the author as the young woman she was, not one in a position to answer for the rise of Hitler or to impede his ruinous course, the diary is a moving tribute to the human spirit.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Perspective on Wartime Germany
Review: The author of these diaries was 23 when the war began in 1939, and canot be blamed for the rise of Nazism. She knew many German aristocrats, including ones who suffered the extreme penalty for opposing Hitler. I found fascinating the account of how life went on in aristocratic circles in Germany while bombs dropped and Hitler ran his terroristic regime. This is another view entirely from Victor Klemperer's monumental volumes entitled I Will Bear Witness, which I read with sheerest fascination on June 11, 1999, and April 7, 2000, since Missy, the author, almost seemed to bear a charmed life. But like Klemperer's diary, time seemed to move so slow as one reads, knowing that not till May 8, 1945 would the ordeal end--and not even then because life in Germany postwar was no bed of roses for some time. If one considers the author as the young woman she was, not one in a position to answer for the rise of Hitler or to impede his ruinous course, the diary is a moving tribute to the human spirit.
Rating:
Summary: An Unusual Story told with great poignancy
Review: The first thing which told me that this would be a very different story was the background of the author. After all there weren't many White Russian Princesses who were working in the German Foreign Service in the turbulent years of the second world war. It must have indeed been very trying times for the author and her family when the Germans were still allied to the Russians, and the constant threat of being deported loomed over their heads. Marie Wassilitchikow's diary is written with clarity and feeling. Some points, I feel however were not properly reflected on. On the subject of Subhas Chandra Bose, the introductory lines say that Hitler completely thwarted the aims of Bose. That is by far a very simplified comment. It is true that Hitler did make Bose's life very difficult. But Hitler could never thwart the aims of a freedom fighter of Bose's stature. The explaination to that lies in subcontinental Asian politics and not in Europe. And lastly the Indian Legion did accomplish many things, but mostly in Asia, fighting to free their homeland, in Europe also a few units did take part in the Normandy Campaign. So again, to completely write off the Indian Legion is too vague a comment. Apart from this the diary was brilliant and told with great insight, it showed the growing stress of the writer as the war went on. Many of those she knew became casualties of the war. Among them her close friends like Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, who was at the time of his death in January 1944 the leading nightfighter ace of Germany. Many others perished as Marie tried to make sense of what was happening in those trying times. All in all, a captivating story told with great poignancy.
Rating:
Summary: Bombed in Berlin
Review: There is no need to write a lot on this book: my co-reviewers have given excellent details and reasons to read this excellent memoir on the life of the elite in Berlin through the war and the pesky bombs that disrupted their pursue of any little happiness that they could seek. Among interesting details you can find that oysters were not on ration cards. This by itself speaks volumes..... If I chime in is to say that as the son of French folks that got bombed during the war, Miss Vassiltchikov allowed me to get a new perspective to all those tales of woe that I grew up with. If non German folks suffered a lot, it was no picnic for the Germans either, and perhaps a lot of them did not really measure what was really happening to the world as they knew it. This book has a very curious effect: on one hand one blames further the German elite that failed to stop Hitler; on the other hand one does wonder up to what point this elite was in large part a victim too. For better or for worse history belongs to the death camp victims as well as to the airhead elite of Germany. The reason one needs to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: An insightful look into life in Berlin during WWII
Review: This book offers an insightful look into life in Berlin during WWII. It also offers a look at a lifestyle which no longer exists in Europe. This is an "insiders" look into life with the Nazis. While most of us are fully familiar with the Holocaust and its results for the Jews and other groups, this book gives us another perspective of Germany and Hitler and his Nazis. Additionally, we get a view of life among the royalty of Europe as it no longer exists. Interesting and thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: A truly memorable exploration of personal history.
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read, bringing history vividly to life and brilliantly shedding light on the human condition, on the way we adapt to change. It is incredible to think this was written by someone who was not a writer and, sadly, by a woman who never published any other work and didn't live to see the publication of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Extrordinary
Review: This is one of the most extrordinary books I've ever read. Missy Vassiltchikov was friends with several of the key conspiritors in the attempt to assasinate Hitler, including Count Graf Van Der Schellenberg and Adam Von Trot zu Holz. It is amazing that given her close relationship with the conspiritors (even after their arrest!) that Missy Vasiltchikov escaped arrest and exectution herself. What's more amazing is that she kept a diary of her relationship with these people and documented her own desire to see Hitler eliminated. She filed these pages with the normal dispatches and documents of her civil service job and amazingly was never discovered.I enjoyed this book as a primary source and for the amazing exposure it provides of the conspiracty to assasinate Hitler. But I also enjoyed the writing--which is quite good--and the details of Missy Vasiltchikov's life, which are quite extrordinary. This book isn't for everyone, but if you're interested in modern German history, or in a story of courage and survival then I recommend it.
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