Astrid Lindgren’s diaries covering the years September 1939 to 1945 are her personal accounts of how World War II have affected her, her family and friends, and those nations who didn’t even enter the war. In these writings, Sweden is pictured in a unique position, always on alert of being about to enter the war yet holding back. For Sweden’s struggle not to enter the war has created hostility among the Norwegians and the other neighboring nations, although this writer expresses her sensitivities, compassion, and empathy repeatedly toward her neighboring nations.

Lindgren’s worldview of the unfolding events is priceless. She writes on May 10, 1940, “Germany is like some malevolent monster that emerges from its cave at regular intervals to pounce on fresh victims…There has to be something wrong with a people that finds itself pitted against the rest of humanity every twenty years or so.”

Later in January 1942, she is cautious about the views the world leaders. She says, “A new year begins. I wonder what the three gentlemen opposite are expecting from the New Year. Hitler, at any rate, looks as if he’s had a few sleepless nights. Churchill looks sad and troubled; only Roosevelt looks hopeful, in that American way.”

The major importance of her diaries, in my opinion, is in their being so factual, unlike the politicized news reports of the time. They are what she thinks about the world and what she lists and details about her nation’s everyday struggles for existence with scarcities due to the war, highlighted by her empathies toward the peoples of the nations who are so suffering. For example, on 26 December 1941, she writes, “At work today, I have seen some awful pictures of Finnish children who had been carried off to Russia and had now come back. I haven’t seen anything as horrifically emaciated and deformed since the days of the World War, sorry, I mean the First World War. But this is how all the children of Europe will look by the end of it all.”

That Lindgren worked at Sweden’s Special Intelligence Agency also must have given her wider insight into the daily events of the war, and this shows in her astute assessment of situations and observations of the nations of the world. Another point is, at the writing of these diaries Lindgren did not have a published book and was not a famous author. Still, her grasp of the situations and her perceptive comments point to the perfection of her style of writing. For that alone, she has to be applauded and respected.

observing in retrospect what went on in the world during WWII through the eyes of a writer who lived in a country, not in the war but was in constant threat of it.

the author's decency and what I think is her accurate observations

enriched.

is Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002), who created the character of Pippi Longstocking to entertain her daughter Karin. Lindgren was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her contribution to international children’s literature

I loved reading it, although the subject is depressing enough; however, the author's writing style, her serious words somehow tinged with slight humor, captivates the reader.

These memoirs are authentic and touching. The author's vision into what goes on in other countries is especially keen due to her job in what she calls secret defense work. She writes, for example, that in Paris, a potato costs 5 francs and wild birds like hawks are being sold in the markets.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of War Diaries, 19391945   from Amazon.Com!

Created Feb 04, 2019 at 4:49pm • Submit your own review...