Marie Wassiltschikow (1917–1978)
Author of Berlin Diaries: 1940-1945
About the Author
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Works by Marie Wassiltschikow
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Wassiltschikow, Marie Hilarionowna
- Other names
- Vassiltchikov, Marie
Wassiltchikoff, Marie - Birthdate
- 1917-01-11
- Date of death
- 1978-08-12
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- diarist
memoirist - Organizations
- Mnistère des Affaires étrangères du Reich (Secrétaire, 19 39 | 1945)
- Relationships
- Metternich, Tatiana (sister)
Wassiltschikow, Lydia (mother) - Short biography
- Marie Vassiltchikov [or Wassiltschikow], was born in St. Petersburg to a family of Russian aristocrats who served in the Russian Imperial Parliament and at court. They fled Russia in 1919 following the Bolshevik Revolution. Marie spent her childhood as a refugee in France, Germany and Lithuania. She and her older sister Tatiana intermittently attended school at the Lycée of Saint Germain-en-Laye, when their parents were in funds. They spent the early years of World War II together in Germany, where they got jobs in the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. Many of Marie's close friends, including her boss, Adam von Trott zu Solz, were involved in the July 1944 plot to kill Hitler, and were executed. Marie kept secret diaries of her life in Berlin, including details of the conspiracy and the Allied bombing raids, written in shorthand. After the plot failed, she moved to Vienna, where she worked as a nurse. At the end of the war, she met and married Peter G. Harnden, an officer in U.S. military intelligence. They went to live in Paris, where Harden ran his own architectural firm. Marie's book Berlin Diaries: 1940-1945, was published after her death in 1985. It is considered one of the best and most informative first-hand accounts of the period.
- Cause of death
- Maladie (Leucémie)
- Nationality
- Russia
- Birthplace
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Places of residence
- Berlin, Germany
St. Petersburg, Russia
Vienna, Austria
Paris, France - Place of death
- London, England
- Burial location
- Cremated
- Map Location
- Russia
Members
Reviews
Maria Vassiltchkova aka Missie was a White Russian princess who spent the majority of WW2 in Berlin. Her family was in exile as Stalin's regime had little tolerance for the former aristocracy, but this didn't prevent her family to enjoy their status in the West.
This offers a unique perspective on the events that she witnessed with little semblance to what war was like for ordinary people. So, we learn that travelling around Europe was still rather easy with people with the right papers, show more oysters were not rationed and were available as far as 1944, so were the rivers of confiscated French champagne. Bars and nightclubs were open as long as they weren't destroyed in the bouts of Allied carpet bombing and spending weekends in the countryside residences of her aristocrat friends was still a thing.
The most interesting part of the diaries is the author's connection to the officers involved in Operation Valkyrie. Even though she was well informed about the assassination plot she got out of the whole thing without even being questioned by the Gestapo, which seems very unlikely.
But, when you have friends in high places, everything's possible.
The tone of youthful naivete and aristocratic arrogance prominent in the first part of the book can be annoying. Missie drops a lot of names as her social calendar always seems to be fully booked and seems to be the only thing of interest to her.
Interestingly, for a diary of a young woman full of flippant details she occasionally jots down some astute observations about politics. However, we always remain on the surface since there is very little of her inner world exposed. So, don't expect much literary value here because this is above all a war log.
Personally, I found the last part of the diary the most interesting, because it contains some specific details about post-war life, refugee migrations etc. It is also the part where Missie experienced the most hardship, so it was easier to feel for her. By the end of this diary, I realized I actually enjoyed her voice and persevered through all the petty details she lists cause I was genuinely interested in what is going to happen to her.
What one must give to her is her unconquered spirit, for even in the worst of times when she could've stayed away from the capital she would "want to remain where the action is and that, of course, is Berlin". show less
This offers a unique perspective on the events that she witnessed with little semblance to what war was like for ordinary people. So, we learn that travelling around Europe was still rather easy with people with the right papers, show more oysters were not rationed and were available as far as 1944, so were the rivers of confiscated French champagne. Bars and nightclubs were open as long as they weren't destroyed in the bouts of Allied carpet bombing and spending weekends in the countryside residences of her aristocrat friends was still a thing.
The most interesting part of the diaries is the author's connection to the officers involved in Operation Valkyrie. Even though she was well informed about the assassination plot she got out of the whole thing without even being questioned by the Gestapo, which seems very unlikely.
But, when you have friends in high places, everything's possible.
The tone of youthful naivete and aristocratic arrogance prominent in the first part of the book can be annoying. Missie drops a lot of names as her social calendar always seems to be fully booked and seems to be the only thing of interest to her.
Interestingly, for a diary of a young woman full of flippant details she occasionally jots down some astute observations about politics. However, we always remain on the surface since there is very little of her inner world exposed. So, don't expect much literary value here because this is above all a war log.
Personally, I found the last part of the diary the most interesting, because it contains some specific details about post-war life, refugee migrations etc. It is also the part where Missie experienced the most hardship, so it was easier to feel for her. By the end of this diary, I realized I actually enjoyed her voice and persevered through all the petty details she lists cause I was genuinely interested in what is going to happen to her.
What one must give to her is her unconquered spirit, for even in the worst of times when she could've stayed away from the capital she would "want to remain where the action is and that, of course, is Berlin". show less
This is difficult. I love this topic and was quite prepared to love this book. The author was a White Russian whose aristocratic family escaped Stalin's terror and fled to Germany just before World War II. She was part of a crowd that was linked to the ill-fated July 20th attempt to assassinate Hitler. So, everything was is place for the perfect book. Not so. Until the actual attempt on Hitler's life, the diary entries are slogs through a catalog of the aristocracy of Eastern Europe and show more Germany, Austrian and Italy. There is lots of champagne and plenty of oysters between horrific bouts of Allied carpet bombing. There are sad storied of having to leave behind one's furs or crystal or.... What is missing is a real connection to all these people or any real feelings at all. It is a list- of aristocratic play pals, of castles for weekend visits, of dining and dancing, of bombed out houses and streets. That said, the book does get more interesting, perhaps because the author herself seems more invested emotionally in the horrors of the Nazi response to the attempted murder of Hitler. There are some few side notes that were quite resonant- the lack of foresight in the demands for "unconditional surrender" which may have prolonged the war, the refusal of the Allies to deal in any significant way with the rather large group inside Germany determined to stop Hitler, the apparent Allied attitude that all Germans were the same and all were complicit in the Nazi terror, and the devastation the Allied bombing had on the civilian population of Germany- ironically missing all the munitions factories for which they were supposedly aiming. Having read about the V bombs and the Blitz directed at London, I am not sure the author (or rather her brother who writes the comments between the diary entries) can really claim much moral high ground. I am not sure there is any such thing in war. Thus, the second half of the book is more interesting and would make an intriguing discussion for a history class. In fact, the last third is very interesting, but still plagued a bit by all the names of people we don't know or care about. show less
In my research for my novel, An Honorable German, this was an indipensible book. The reason: the rich detail Missie recorded about her daily life in Berlin including what it was like to live in the city during the years it was constantly being bombed. This is one of the few contemporaneous diaries from that time. She was a beautiful White Russian Royal Princess, as she reminds us several times, and kept up her active social life amisdst the slow collapse of Berlin. In doing so, she recorded show more details which can seem girlish and flippant now since she mainly writes about how the war is making her life social life difficult. But the information one gleans is invaluble: hats weren’t rationed, she played ping-pong, a staple of life was macaroni. For all the fascination I have with this diary there is one very unsettling fact: she worked for some months as a secretary to one of the key conspirators in the 20 July 1944 plot to kill Hitler yet is never interrogated by the Gestapo at least she doesn’t write about it. Did she rat someone out? Perhaps we will never know but don’t believe everything she says about herself. show less
OMG! This is a must read. It really tells us what it is like to live in a totalitarian state, that becomes one in your midst. While also, the public services get bombed to smithereens every day of your life. All Americans can stand to learn something about what happens when Civil Society breaks down beyond all recognition. We only speculate with all our ideologies. This lady was a Princess who quietly married an American GI and retired from public life. But boy, what a public life she lived show more as a steno in Goebbels evil ministry of information, all the while documenting the evil goings on right under their noses and the efforts of the Von Bismarck circle (of which she was central) to plot to kill the Fuhrer. Heart wrenching and like I said, something we should all have to read in grade school. show less
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- Rating
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