Ursula von Kardorff (1911–1988)

Ursula von Kardorff was born in Berlin, Germany, into an aristocratic Prussian family. She worked for a short time as a secretary in 1937 and then began a career in journalism. She worked for the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung in Berlin, first as a volunteer and later as an full-time writer. She became an opponent of the Nazis, especially after the death of her younger brother Jürgen in World War II, and counted members of the German resistance among her acquaintances. Because of this, she was suspected of involvement in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, and was interrogated by the Gestapo, but released. In March 1945, she fled the approaching Red Army from Berlin south into Bavaria, where the aerial war was still raging. Her village was later occupied by American and Free French troops. After the war ended, she returned to Berlin, and during the journey observed the treatment of civilians, especially women, in both American and Soviet occupation zones. She kept a diary of the war years later published as Diary of a Nightmare: Berlin 1942-1945. After she reported on the Nuremberg Trials for the Süddeutschen Zeitung, she was hired by the newspaper in 1950 as an editor, a post she held until her death in 1988.