Anonyma (i. e. Marta Hillers) »Eine Frau in Berlin« und Wladimir N. Gelfand »Deutschland-Tagebuch 1945–1946«.Doppelporträts und exemplarische Texte

In the organizer's words:

The fact that the initially anonymous author of the diary entries, first published in 1954 and covering the period from April 20 to June 22, 1945, was the young journalist Marta Hillers, was only clearly proven in 2003. Born in Krefeld, Hillers lived in Düsseldorf for a time and joined the Communist Party. As a result of stays abroad, she spoke good Russian and fluent French. She lived in Berlin from 1934 and worked as a freelance journalist. In 1945, she witnessed the conquest of Berlin by the Red Army.

Vladimir Gelfand, who came from a poor Jewish family background in what is now Ukraine, was drafted into the Red Army in May 1942 and took part in various major battles. In November 1943, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and was promoted to lieutenant a few months later. In the spring of 1945, his unit was involved in the advance on Berlin and the conquest of the city. He remained in various assignments in and around Berlin until the fall of 1946, before returning to the Soviet Union. Contrary to a strict prohibition for members of the Red Army, Gelfand kept notes and longer diary entries, which he was able to keep and preserve despite many difficulties. However, a comprehensive publication was out of the question in the Soviet Union. It was only long after his death and the collapse of the USSR that Gelfand's son made publication possible. It is an extremely rare testimony of a Red Army soldier, who not least described his contact with the German civilian population.

As part of the event series "80 years of the end of the war in Europe"

UNEQUAL WORDS. Victors and vanquished, liberators and liberated in Germany in 1945 - double portraits and exemplary texts

With Dr. Katja Schlenker and Prof. Dr. Winfrid Halder

When, in the first months of 1945, the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition, led by the United States of America, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, completely conquered the territory of the then German Reich, finally defeated the German Wehrmacht and crushed the criminal Nazi regime, their soldiers and war correspondents encountered members of a nation at the political and moral low point of its entire history. Conversely, the Germans were confronted with the victors and liberators, most of whom seemed alien to them after twelve years of dictatorship and widespread isolation. Initial impressions were recorded from both sides, the unfiltered directness of which is still impressive today. They also show that the subsequent path of "Western integration" of at least part of Germany, which was embarked upon with significant help from the USA and which opened the way to democracy and self-determination, was neither self-evident nor easy.

The series presents two people who met each other indirectly, less often directly, and recorded their experiences of the supposed "zero hour".