Potsdam Station

Written by David Downing

Narrated by Simon Prebble

In April 1945, Hitler's Reich is on the verge of extinction. Assaulted by Allied bombs and Soviet shells, ruled by Nazis with nothing to lose, Berlin has become the most dangerous place on earth. John Russell's son Paul is stationed on the Eastern Front with the German Army, awaiting the Soviets' final onslaught. In Berlin, Russell's girlfriend Effi has been living in disguise, helping fugitives to escape from Germany. With a Jewish orphan to care for, she's trying to outlast the Nazis. Russell hasn't heard from either of them since fleeing Germany in 1941. He is desperate to find out if they're alive and to protect them from the advancing Red Army. He flies to Moscow, seeking permission to enter Berlin with the Red Army as a journalist, but when the Soviet's arrest him as a spy, things look bleak-until they find a use for him that has him parachuting into Berlin behind German lines.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781501965500

David Downing

David Downing is the author of eight John Russell novels, as well as four World War I espionage novels in the Jack McColl series and the thriller The Red Eagles. He lives in Guildford.

Reviews for Potsdam Station

[breic-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At first I didn't like how Downing split the narration between the three main characters, John, Effie and Paul. But, like the previous books in the series, this one does a great job establishing the setting, for a time and place—the Soviet capture of Berlin—that I had not thought about before. John's heroism and the implausible places it takes him are amusing. > ‘A corpse marriage,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t call it that – I hate it when other people use that phrase. But it’s more than three years ago. Maybe you’d disappeared by then, but there was a Führer decree allowing women who’d just lost their fiancées to marry them post-mortem. There was a pension included, and that’s why I went for it, but I did love Gerd, and I’m sure he’d have seen the funny side of it – marrying me when he was already dead.’

[tmph_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not bad overall, but exceptional in the last week or two of the Red Army advance into Berlin following the protagonist Russell parachuting in from Moscow, his actress wife hiding in the city with a little Jewish girl, and Russell's son in the Wehrmacht retreating into the city. 1 Dec. 2015.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth novel of a six book series. It leaps 3 years and 3 months forward from the last book, to April 1945. Initially it was a little disconcerting but then I realized that Downing has already shown us what he wanted to show us, and although there is likely a story that lies untold he wanted us to now see the fall of Berlin. Focus here is at times different, but also somewhat familiar - Downing again take us through the streets and train stations with a technique that may be tiresome to some readers but one that I generally find immersive. As before, there is quite a bit of story building before things take off at an exciting pace. Our primary character John Russell, British-American journalist, was escaping from the German Reich at the end of the last novel 'Stettin Station', and now is determined to get back in before the complete collapse and imminent Russian invasion of Berlin to make contact with his son Paul and his girlfriend Effie. Effie is more than a girlfriend really. His plan is to follow the Red Army as a journalist. Hmmm not so easy. The Soviets are as bad as the Nazis. Unlike prior stories large parts of this happen away from John Russell and the story quick cuts between Russell, Effi and Paul throwing the reader a little off balance as the Soviet army attacks and the German army retreats. Very well done.

[john257hopper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the fourth novel in the John Russell/Effi Koenen series set before and during the second world war. At the end of the previous novel, Russell had managed to escape Berlin for neutral Sweden in 1941, but Effi could not accompany him. This novel moves forward over three years to near the very end for Hitler's Germany, as the Red Army surrounds and advances on Berlin, in April 1945. Russell persuades his contacts in the Red Army to let him slip in as part of an advance party before the main army conquers the city, to find Effi and his now 18 year old son Paul. The action of the novel follows Russell's attempts to infiltrate, Effi's struggle to survive as the city collapses around her, and the completion of Paul's own disillusionment as a young member of the Wehrmacht. They do all eventually meet, but all is not quite neat and tidy, and the slightly ambiguous conclusion leads us into the fifth book. Downing describes the environment of fin de guerre Berlin very evocatively and creates well rounded and likeable characters, though as before this does ramble a little in places.

[edwardsgt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A grippingly authentic story woven around the last days of the Nazis as the Russians storm Berlin. John Russell does a deal with the Russians to get back to Berlin where he believes his wife and son are. However, as always the Russians want something in return which involves a dangerous arrival in Berlin ahead of Russian troops. The level of detail about war-time Berlin, including streets, buildings and railways gives the story a documentary feel, as do the various characters who all seem authentic. Highly recommended.

[jmkemp-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We're in the final month of Nazi Germany, with John Russell, Effi Koenen and Russell's son Paul all providing points of view for this tale of the final days of the Third Reich.

The family is all scattered and trying their best to survive the carnage. There is real tension in this volume as one cannot be sure that any specific characters will survive. Will there be a happy ending, or will there be tragedy.

Effi is living undercover in Berlin helping others as she hides herself. The city is being bombed night and day by the Allies, and the landmarks are disappearing with every raid. Her side of the story continues the series trademark description of Berlin and how it is changing. Her character has really developed over the course of the series, she's no longer the Babelsburg film star heroine. She's become a real heroine, and refused to cowed by the nazi regime, albeit at a cost of living undercover.

Paul has been conscripted into the Army and is an anti-tank gunner. Again one wonders if he will survive the Soviet advance, and even if he does will be be taken prisoner alive. His tale is of the collapse of the German military and the desperation of the nazis. His interaction with a Hitler Youth unit when he gets separated from the rest of his regiment is heart-rending. You need to read it.

John has spent the period between this book and Stettin Station in the US before becoming a war correspondent. On realising that the Soviets will be first into Berlin he pulls all the strings he can find to get attached to the Red Army as a war correspondent. This doesn't quite work, but the NKVD remember him and come up with their own very high price to get him into Berlin.

Although separate and mostly oblivious of each other's whereabouts there are moments in the book when you expect the protagonists to discover each other. Most of these are missed, but a couple do occur, notably Paul runs into Effi a couple of times, once at a train station on opposing platforms, and again as a casualty in a field hospital where Effi is helping.

For me this is definitely the best of the series so far. I like the wider viewpoints and also the utter chaos. It also has a satisfying ending.

[oparaxenos · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was good, but not as good as the previous John Russell novels in the series. Still, it was an engaging read.

[ecw0647 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

# 4 in the John Russell series. At the end of volume 3 in this excellent series, Russell had escaped to Sweden and Effi had returned to Berlin, hiding in plain sight disguised as an old woman by using her make-up and acting skills. Germany had just declared war on America and the Gestapo sought both of them. Fast forward to April, 1945. Paul, John’s son, is sixty miles from Berlin on the eastern front as part of a Panzerfaust unit as the eastern front shrinks, Effi is surviving but also working to help refugees escape, and Russell is in Moscow hoping to enter Berlin with the Russian troops to find Effi.Downing follows the travails of John (struggling to get back to Berlin to find Effie), Effie (hiding from the Gestapo as she helps refugees escape the city), and Paul (trying to stay alive as his unit is pushed back to Berlin) as each tries to survive the war in the inferno that 1945 Berlin had become. And Downing vividly describes that hell.I won’t risk spoiling anything about the plot. Let it be enough to say this series is excellent, but please read them in order.NB: Re the Kindle edition. The book switches perspectives regularly, e.g., from Russell to Effi to Paul and back, and there is often no transition in the Kindle edition, it’s just the next paragraph, no space, no chapter, no nothing. That needs to be fixed. On the other hand, I see there are new editions out and mine is an older one, so perhaps that has been fixed.

[mancmilhist · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have really enjoyed the John Russell series for it's evocative atmosphere and attention to detail. My main criticism in Potsdam Station would be echoed by other reviewers in how much did people understand the power of the atomic bomb in May 1945 particularly a journalist.

The other rare mistake is this book mentions the street Clayallee which wasn't named as such until 1953 after the US Military governor of the US Zone of Occupation.

[smiler69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I've been tremendously enjoying the John Russell series and was quite blown away with the last book I read, Stetting Station, which made this book seem even more disappointing than it was. While the first three books take place just before the onset of the war and then in the midst of it, blending spy thrills with adventures, many involving the rescue of Jewish refugees, this book, set during the month of April 1945 somehow had a very different feel to it. Berlin is under urgent threat, with the Soviets relentlessly advancing and surrounding the city, while German forces struggle to keep their footing, but we know how things will end, with the Russians utterly defeating Hitler's troops. John Russell, who has been living as a refugee outside of Germany for the past 3 years, sees the Russian victory as the most probable outcome, and is desperate to get back into Berlin so he can locate his girlfirend Effie and his son Paul, who is now a soldier fighting for the Germans. He wants to get to them before the Russians do and is concerned that they may both fall victims as spoils of the Soviet victory, with abundant stories about the conquerors telling persistent tales of the horrific treatment of German citizens, which the Russian soldiers feel is only fair retribution for the suffering they endured under Hitler's invasion. Russell makes a dangerous pact with the Soviet Army to ensure he can reenter the city before it's too late. Berlin is being constantly shelled and bombed, and everyone must somehow manage to survive in the overcrowded underground shelters, with their stench of human refuse and lack of any comforts in the ways of food, drink, or hope. This makes for very bleak reading, and also quite repetitive action: bombs, shells, mutilation, more bombs, more shells, more mutilation, and so on. The bomb shelters where Effie barely manages to survive with a young charge, an orphaned Jewish girl who has come under her protection, and where John also ambles through as he seeks his loved ones, makes for a very claustrophobic feeling throughout and unfortunately I didn't find the reading nor the action gripping enough to make it all more bearable. Consequently, this novel felt like it dragged on an on and on, and I couldn't wait to get through it. The only reason I'm not panning this book completely or giving it a crippling rating is because I've grown attached to the characters and found myself caring about their fates. There was little doubt as to the final outcome, but still, I was drawn in by their struggles and wanted to see how they came through theses difficult trials in the end. I'm hoping this was the only low point in the series and that I'll find the latest book, Lehrter Station more captivating. I'll be sure to report my findings when I get there.

[labfs39 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I must confess this book didn't do much for me. The German army is on the run and trying to defend Berlin, while the Soviet army plows through their resistance and wrecks brutal havoc on the German people in lands that they have conquered. Everyone is wondering why Hitler won't end the war and save his people. John is trying to reach Berlin in time to find and protect Effie from the Soviet army and, ironically, has to make a deal with the Soviets to lead an NKVD team into Berlin and help them find atomic secrets in order to do so. Effie, meanwhile, has become a member of a cell trying to save Jewish "U-boats", Jews who have survived by hiding. Arrested for being with a Jewish orphan, Effie refuses to leave the child and is taken to a collection camp which, like the rest of Berlin, is under constant Allied bombing. Paul is now seventeen and a gunner with the ragtag remnants of the German army. Finally understanding why his father did and believed the things he did and abandoned him in 1941, Paul is growing up in a world gone mad. As fourteen year old Hitlerjugend and grey bearded members of the Volkssturm are forced into the breach, Paul simply tries to survive. The plot line had potential to be a heart-stopping thriller, however, it didn't work for me. The novel is written in alternating perspectives: John's, Effie's, and Paul's. The effect is that just as one plot line starts to gather momentum, it is stopped cold by the switch to a different voice. Not only do the abrupt changes slow the pace, but there is no easy way of determining when a switch has occurred. One section can by about John and the next paragraph can be a segment about Paul with no visual warning. I found it very disconcerting. So as fabulous as the plot was, I couldn't get into the flow of the book and was disappointed with what could have been a fascinating story. In addition, there was even less introspection than usual.

[stevesmits · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This World War II novel centers around three related lives that have been separated by the tumult in and around war time Berlin. John Russell is an Englishman who resided in Germany for many years prior to the outbreak of the war with Russia. Russell, a journalist who earlier in his life became a Communist, escaped from Germany in 1941, leaving behind his girlfriend Effi (described as a well-known movie star before the war) and his son, Paul. Effi chose not to leave, instead involving herself in resistance efforts to rescue Jews from deportation. Paul, once a member of the Hitler Youth, is now a teen age soldier serving with the retreating German forces during the Russian advance on Berlin.The story parallels the events of the three characters in the last days of the war. Russell is trying to return to Berlin via the Red Army's advance to reunite with Effi and protect her from the likely depradations of the Soviet troops. Paul, who was estranged from Russell after his sudden flight from the country, is closely involved in the desparate last battles against the Russian advance. Effi is threatened with exposure and goes underground to escape detection by the Gestapo. The book is a convincing thriller. The characters nearly miraculously escape the destruction and death that others fell victim to on a massive scale. The author has close knowledge of war time Berlin and his descriptions of the characters' movements around the city create in the narrative a vivid sense of place. The novel succeeds in several dimensions: the storyline's progression is exciting, the scenes and places are realistic, and one feels fully fixed in the times, as opposed to a retrospective perspective of times gone by. This is one of a series of novels about John Russell, not apparently the first. While the story is self-contained there was some lack of clarity about events and motives that must have been laid out in previous novels. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable read.