[Nabeel]

Dear All,

I'm writing about UN Aid workers in Europe at the end of the Second World War and shortly afterwards. I'm therefore interested in non-fictional, first-hand accounts of civilian life in that period, whether by Brit's, Americans, French people, whoever. I've read quite a few autobiographical accounts that were written decades afterwards, some of them incredibly interesting, but I'd like to read some either written at the time, or very soon afterwards.

I can read French.

To give some idea of what I'm interested in, here's my current Top Six favourites:

Clifford Barnard, Binding the Wounds of War; a Young Relief Worker’s Letters Home, 1943-47 (2010)
Edward Blishen, A Cackhanded War (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1983 [1972])
George Clare, Berlin Days, 1946—47 (1989)
Kathryn Hulme, The Wild Place (London and New York: Shakespeare Head, 1954)
Marvin Klemme, The Inside Story of UNRRA; An Experience in Internationalism; a First Hand Report on the Displaced People of Europe (1949)
Norman Lewis, Naples ’44: An Intelligence Officer in the Italian Labyrinth (published 1983, but written much earlier)
Susan T. Pettiss and Lynne Taylor, After the Shooting Stopped: the Story of an UNRRA Welfare Worker in Germany 1945-1947 (2004)

I consider Lewis's account to be a magnificent literary achievement. The other five are competent and interesting.

Please note I'm not so interested in accounts of military conflict (unless they address questions of civilian/military relations). I'd certainly also consider lightly fictionalised autobiographical accounts.

all advice and recommendations welcome!

Nabeel