"I Am Berlin"

A Ten Minute Play

"I Am Berlin" was inspired by A Woman in Berlin" Eight Weeks in the Conquered City (anonymous journal) which gives a first-hand account of the brutal mass rape of German women at the end of World War II.  Within a week an estimated 100,00 women fell victim to Russian and American soldiers, regardless of age or infirmity.

In the play, Ilse Schutz is waiting for the Red Army to appear in the ruined street outside her apartment.  In the bombed-out city of Berlin, their husbands away to war, the women are starving to death and terrified of the advance rumors of what has happened in towns already swept by the Allies.  Ilse has not only herself to fear for, but her aged mother Adele and her seven-year-old daughter Helmi.  As the Red Army marches into the city, the women wait.