STAY ALIVE Berlin, 1939-1945

Life in the Reich capital. Buruma, professor at Bard College and author ofYear Zero: A History of 1945 (2013), has a personal interest in the subject of his latest book: His father spent two years in Berlin, compelled to join 400,000 foreign factory workers, poorly fed and housed but paid a small salary. Buruma draws on an abundant source of material, including letters and diaries, enriching these with interviews with wartime eyewitnesses, now in their 90s. Berlin was never a hotbed of Nazi enthusiasm, and Buruma describes many Berliners, especially artists, professionals, and the aristocracy who held a low opinion of them. Hitler's invasions of Poland and France were mostly considered good news in Berlin. Rationing was tedious, but for the war's first two years, provided one wasn't Jewish, it was possible to imagine that life in Berlin was normal. By the fall of 1942, with no sign of victory in Russia and Allied bombings increasing, the quality of life declined relentlessly--although suffering in Berlin never matched that inflicted on conquered people in Eastern Europe. Jews, of course, suffered a worse fate. The avalanche of the Nazis' antisemitic abuse, poured out since 1933, persuaded most Germans that Jews were at least "a problem." Half of Berlin's 160,000 Jews had left by 1939. The remainder had been ejected from jobs, schools, and homes, crammed into slum ghettoes, and forbidden to buy clothes, vehicles, and even pets. Mass deportation began in 1941. Buruma describes heroic Berliners who sheltered Jews, despite the terrible danger, but heroism is rare, and most Germans, even sympathizers, refused. Fewer than 2,000 remained in 1945. Richly complex, if often painful. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.