I thought I had mentioned reading this book on this forum some time back, but after searching this section I couldn't find it so I'll proceed anew.. I first read this book in 2005, although it's been around for decades. At the time I had recently made an email friend in Ukraine after reading his grandfather's WWII story on the 'I Remember' web site. It is based on the personal experience of a young female journalist who was living in Berlin at the time of the city's capitulation to the Red Army in May, 1945 and the subsequent rape of (reported) several hundred thousand German women of all ages in Berlin by Russian soldiers. That figure could be as high as 2 million, as many were not reported and there were thousands of suicides in Berlin by women and men alike. Some German parents loyal to the Nazi Party chose to kill their children first and then commit suicide themselves rather than be subjected to Soviet rule and/or revenge they knew was coming after the atrocities that were commited by German soldiers to Russian civilians over the course of 5 years of Nazi occupation.
When this book was first published in Germany in 1958 it was met with extreme anger, as many thought it was an insult against German women's honor by the author, who was herself a victim who did what was necessary to survive, as did many other women who were left defenceless. I had a hard time putting this book down once I started reading it, so I was happy to see that a movie version was released in 2009, and available on Netflix. The cast includes many of the fine German actors and actresses who had major roles in "Downfall." This post has grown larger than I intended so I will close with a recommendation that you read the book and/or see the movie. Both are excellent in my opinion.