“A fascinating story. Lively and well-informed, this book tells it all, with lots of attention to the travails of those involved.”
—Atlantic Monthly

Among ideological cataclysms, World War II stands alone in its scope and horror. Yet for a few minutes each night of the war, soldiers of all armies across most of the globe stopped as one to listen to a simple love song, broadcast every evening at 9:57 by the Nazi-controlled Radio Belgrade. The tune was called “Lili Marlene,” a once-forgotten love song that transcended battle lines to become the anthem of both the Axis and the Allied armies.

How could a simple, emotional tune bring about such unity in a conflict marked by deep ideological divides?
LILI MARLENE: The Soldiers’ Song of World War II tells the dramatic story, a story of passion and honor overcoming politics and war, a story as relevant and stirring today as it was half a century ago. Members of the “greatest generation” will delight in this freshly authoritative and readable account of a beloved keepsake, and younger readers will discover a new prism through which to understand the war and a song which has been sung by everyone from Marlene Dietrich to country star Hank Snow.

The unlikely story of “Lili Marlene” begins at the dawn of World War I, when Hans Leip, a schoolteacher grudgingly drafted into the Prussian army, wrote a poem about a young woman hoping for her lover to return to her from the war. The poem found its way to Berlin’s rollicking cabaret scene, where a rotund composer named Norbert Schultze set it to music, creating a tune that was an uncanny mix of folk song, military march, and children’s ditty. Lale Andersen, a sultry singer and failed actress, recorded the song in 1938, and the recording – first broadcast on November 9, the eve of the infamous Kristallnacht – sold a scant 700 copies.

Their lives, however, changed dramatically in 1941, when a broadcaster at the German Army’s Radio Belgrade discovered Andersen’s song in a stack of abandoned records and played it for the men of Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The tune struck a strong chord with soldiers and their families back home, and soon, by popular demand, “Lili Marlene” was awarded the station’s prestigious closing night spot, delighting the fighting men and enraging officials and politicians on both sides who resented the tune’s sweet sentimentality and lack of militaristic and nationalistic fervor. Andersen, who was torn between her personal ambition and her deep disgust with the Nazis, saw her life turn into a film noir, with arrests and escapes, detention and a suicide attempt. Schultze, on the other hand, suppressed his own political beliefs and collaborated with Goebbels and his underlings, becoming one of Hitler’s favorite composers, writing soundtracks for the Nazi war machine.

“Lili Marlene” deftly weaves together the lives of the artists who made the song famous with the lives of the fighting men who made it iconic. Leibovitz and Miller unearthed copious amounts of primary resources – including diaries, official forms etc. – and conducted extensive interviews with veterans on both sides, creating a mosaic of voices that together tell the story of this remarkable song and the hope it provided in one of history’s darkest hours.

Shifting the focus from major combats to minor love affairs, from historical figures to common soldiers, and from the dawn of the Twentieth Century to its dusk – with the song still popular among recording artists and fighting men alike – Leibovitz and Miller tell a complex and stirring story, a penetrating tribute to how “in a war remembered mostly for its stark divides and brutal, dehumanizing crimes, this song emerged from the ashes as a tiny reminder of unity, hope, and brotherhood.”