Berlin's Lifelines are Cut
Berlin, June 1948, Age Thirteen
At the end of World War II, Germany had been arbitrarily divided up among the four powers. It so happened that the city of Berlin — Germany's capital — was located within Russian occupied territory. The Western Allies accepted this only because Berlin itself was also divided up into four sectors, each governed by one of the four powers. By Autobahn and by rail, the shortest distance to West Germany was one hundred ten miles. West Berlin was rightly referred to as an “Island in the Red Sea.” All of the Allies including the Russians had agreed that there would be free access by road, rail, and shipping channels to West Berlin. Until that June, the Western Allies had no reason to think that any of this access would ever be cut off.
However, as the month of June wore on, measures were taken by the Soviets to cut off all access to Berlin, using whimsical excuses such as an announcement that: — the Autobahn between Berlin and Helmsted has to be closed because it is in urgent need of repair — the Soviet Military Administration is compelled to halt all passenger and freight traffic to and from Berlin, and it is impossible to reroute rail traffic since such measures would cause technical difficulties — water traffic will also be suspended — coal shipments to Berlin from the Soviet zone are halted — the Soviet authorities have ordered the central switching stations to stop the supply of electric power from the Soviet sector of Berlin to the Western sectors because of “technical difficulties” — and so on.
For us, the phrase “technical difficulties” had become synonymous with the Soviet administration, harassment, and their effort to make all of Berlin Communist.
Officially the blockade started June 26. As the news spread, there was disbelief and despair. We cannot survive this, people exclaimed. Even in prewar years Berlin had never been self-sustaining. It had heavily depended on supplies from the outlying farm areas, or, as in the recent past, supplies from West Germany. Each week thousands of tons of freight had to travel over a single track railroad that ran one hundred ten miles through the Soviet zone of occupation from the Helmsted-Marienborn border crossing to Berlin. Nearly every item consumed by the 2.2 million West Berliners, as well as by 6,500 Allied troops, their families, staff, and technicians, had to be imported along a lifeline that the Russians could cut at the border at any time. Now they had done it.
Ashen-faced people walked aimlessly about the streets hoping to hear bits and pieces of “news” as to what was to happen next. The fear of the Russians and their Communist system was worse than the fear of death — but a quick death, please, not starvation. People were tired of living because it seemed that there was nothing left to live for if there was no freedom. Mom was frantic. I think she was at the end of her strength and started to break. I remember Frau Klemm coming into our room and Mom asking her if they perhaps had a gun, or knew of someone who had one — and Peter and I started begging Mom to let us live — and Mom saying “not for Communism.” Luckily, nobody had a gun in those times. All weapons had been confiscated at the end of the war.
It was devastating for me to see Mom “at the end of the rope.” She, who was always optimistic and “found a way” saw this new crisis looming over us, and this time she thought that there was no way out. But Frau Klemm turned out to be a wonderful friend in need. She loved Mom's sense of humor and had a good portion of it herself. It did not take her long to talk Mom out of this gloomy moment. Just hearing her speak with her heavy Russian accent always made us laugh because she often used the wrong words or pronounced words strangely. We would sometimes imitate her way of speaking, and then she'd laugh about it herself. Now she described to Mom in humorous detail how her family and ours were going to “gang up” and fight the Communists together. After all, the Klemms knew the Soviets from firsthand experience and wanted no part of Communism.