Api's Berlin Diaries

Moving and provocative, Api's Berlin Diaries offers a personal perspective on the fall of Berlin 1945 and the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich.

After her mother's death, Robinson was thrilled to find her beloved grandfather's war diaries--only to discover that he had been a Nazi.

The award-winning memoir shows Api, a doctor in Berlin, desperately trying to help the wounded in cellars without water or light. He himself was reduced to anxiety and despair, the daily diary his main refuge. As Robinson retraces Api's steps half a century later, she tries to come up with answers to why he joined the Nazi party while also remembering the happiest years of her childhood with him. For readers of today this moving memoir provides a timely reminder that we all need to reckon with our countries' pasts. This is a must read for anyone interested in the German experience during WWII.