You've convinced me to add this book to my list, Ossiana. I live in Berlin, where some of the 1940s rom-coms still play at an old cinema, and I've seen a few. I've also read a lot of memoirs and pop-history books about the era, and yes, life was very "normal." A few additional book recommendations:

- In the Garden of Beasts (the title being a play on the name of the Tiergarten park, near many of Berlin's embassies) was a stunning wakeup call too, which you might like. That book tells the story of an American diplomat family watching Germany descend in the pre-war years into deeper and deeper horrors.

- Travelers in the Third Reich is another one, spanning from the immediate aftermath of WWI to the very end of WWII; the book details foreign visitors' reactions to the country (Crazy fact: apparently Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dad renamed both of them "Martin Luther" after LOVING his Third Reich-era trip to Germany!!!).

- Underground in Berlin is a memoir of a Jewish woman from Berlin who managed to stay in her city throughout the entire war, in "hiding" (in various senses of the word). Some of her accounts of the characters she encountered feel SO modern-day.... because, in truth, the 1940s weren't that long ago.

- And for a difficult but amazing read: A Woman in Berlin — it's a diary of the first few weeks after Germany capitulated, written by a female journalist. Berlin was the site of the largest mass-rape in history, with Russia wanting to take its revenge.

Okay, I'll stop spamming you with book recs now!