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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1962)
O THURSDAY. MAY 24. 1962 MEDFOBD MAIV TRIBUNE. MEDfORD, OREGON Visit To Berlin Is Detailed By Former Rogue Valley Resident (Editor's note: This is an-1 disturbances to awaken us oth- j other in a series of letters j em than the usual lurching of ' from Dr. Donald Barnes, a the train. former resident" of Phoenix i and son of Mrs. Cornelia Barnes, Phoenix. Dr. Barnes ! is coordinator of curriculum for the American Air Force schools in Europe and North Africa. He plans to return to the United Slates in August and will be on the staff at the University ico.) Drab Towns We arose about 6 a.m. to a sunshiny day, passed through Hotel Fruhling Am Zoo, lo cated on what is known as "Berlin's Great White Way" the Kurfuerstendamm Strasse. This was a pleasant little ho tel, quite typically German, and obviously a family type several smaller towns they j affair as contrasted with the were very drab, unexciting magnioeent and ostentatious looking places compared to , Berlin our towns in West Germany, 1 blocks Gross Gerau, Germany It is Ostern Sontag the Ostcrhasc has already visited and his good works arc dis covered. Our little German neighbor children go through precisely the same evolutions, complete with Easter eggs, the Easter bunny, and Easter tree adorned with its colored eggs, etc. Good Friday, Kar freitag, is a national holiday as is the Monday following Easter. Religious services are conducted on both Sunday and Monday. We had what seemed to us to be a real venture in making the trip to Berlin, although in the course of things as they are presently operating, it was pretty routine. At any rate we will give you a little r' port. I first had to make a trip to USAREUR (U. S. Army Eu rope) headquarters in Heidel berg to obtain "Clearance to Travel to Berlin" papers. These I secured . . . the Amer ican flag was printed in red, white and blue at the lop. Following were statements in English, repeated exactly in Russian. I then visited the Frankfurt Hatiptbahnhof where a mili tary travel office is maintain ed. Here I made reservations on what is loosely termed the "Berlin Night Express" for Tuesday night of the follow ing week. On the appointed evening, Herr Kreidol, our landlord and neighbor, took us to the Gross Gerau Bahn hof where we boarded a train for Frankfurt, a trip of about 25 minutes. I installed my family in the American mili tary waiting room there at the Bahnhof and then went to work securing papers, which by the way were taken from us and retained overnight on the train, and learned about baggage arrangements. Huge Torminal At about g p.m., the public address system announced that the train was loading. We stepped out of the lounge into the huge area where the trains come and go It looks like a building that houses dirigibles: 27 tracks lead into the building and dead end at the loading plat forms. Our train on track number 15 was from the Deutsche Bundesbahn (Ger man national railways) with "United States Army Military Transportation Corps" print ed in large letters on the sides of the cars. Smartly dressed military police checked our tickets and then we were shown to our compartments by the porter, an employee of 1 ho Deutsche Bundesbahn. At t):H p.m. the train pulled out of the Bahnhof and we were on our way. We traveled north and slightly east through Fried berg (llesscn), Marburg, and Ka.sel, among other towns, In Ik'lmsteadt, the checkpoint, arriving there at 3:20 a.m. There is a delay of about one hour during which time ltus iian military men board the irain to check passports and Hcnrance papers. Here also .iur Deutsche Bundesbahn on line is taken off and an East rone engine replaces it. We lcpt through most of the trip our berths were most com monable and there were no with practically no autos of New Mex-isight, either parked or mov I ing on the streets saw a military training base where the soldiers were out exercis ing, and stopped in Potsdam for some obscure reason (it was not stop on city really looked dull and uninteresting. We were sealed in our train all through this part of the trip, incidentally. The doors were secured by heavy links so that they could not be opened. We were for bidden to lean out the win dows and were not permitted to take any pictures. Wc pulled into the small Hilton about away. We ate breakfast in the small hotel restaurant and had occasion to practice our limited Ger man, since almost nobody spoke English. After a breakfast of good hot coffee, hard rolls, butter listed as a regular: and jam, we decided to walk our schedule). This about the center of town and look. We spent the morning and early afternoon doing this and in making a few small purchases in an ultra-modern F. W. Woolworth store. Ev erything in it was of German, or at least European, manufacture. Modernistic Buildings Many, many new apartment military Bahnhof in Berlin j and business buildings of very at 7:50 a.m. and, surprisingly, modernistic design have been were greeted by a military erected in the past few years, band playing at the debarka-1 Some of these would stand by tion point ... a thing I had themselves with blocks of not observed since the days ! nothing but level ground of the "Magic Carpet" at the i around them one could close of World War II. We imagine the terrible destruc- took a taxi to our hotel, the tion which the city sustained 1 V 1 i during the war. Here and there throughout the center of the city wc saw construc tion work going on from our hotel window we could see a new street of four lanes being surfaced below us, a block away a huge gantry crane moved back and forth five ; on its track shifting building our materials which were to be used in constructing buildings to fill what, at the time, was a one block square that was completely level. Two blocks down Kurfuerstendamm from our hotel stand the ruins of the once beautiful Kaiser Wil helm Cathedral the cen tral part sustaining what is left of the bell and clock tow er remains. This is to be pre-, served as a memorial and a ! new, almost futuristic tower, j stands on one side of the ruin i while the new church is on I the other. I The Kurfuerstendamm is lined with businesses inter spersed by restaurants with connecting sidewalk cafes. We ate most of our meals at one of these, the Manpes Gute Stubc, near the hotel where we could drink our beer, eat I our weiner schnitzel, and watch the Berlincrs go about i their business. index of the poor construc tion), but the thing that real ly shakes you is that not many feet away are fully armed Vopos staring across the wall in your direction -the knowledge that they ac- sup- or go down to the store to buy much food, clothing, medical dIics. and other articles. Our last stop was on Ber nauer st. It was here that so many people attempted to tually shoot any countrymen I jump to freedom. Here and attempting to escape eontrib-l there on the sidewalk were utes to the eerie sensations j floral displays commemorat one has. ing people that had missed the On the morning of our ar-1 jump nets and died in the at rival, the West German po-; tempt. The wall along this lice and the Vopos tangled at portion had broken glass em one section of the wall in a bedded in it and the apart oas grenade battle which i ment house windows were aw 4 'A c tV" SPECIALLY PRICED 3 DAYS ONLY 71 Khrushchev Plans Nationwide Speech Moscow - UTII - Soviet Pre mier Nikita Khrushchev will make a nationwide television and radio address to the So viet people Friday on his trip to Bulgaria, it was announced toti;iy. The premier's speech is ex pected to range over the same international questions cover ed in t lie joint Soviet - Bui-1 r.'inan c o in munique issued I after Khrushchev's return! here c.irlicr this week. In the communique, thej two nutions raised once again the threat to simi a separate peace treaty witn r.asl (,er mnny if some settlement cf the German question is nut reached with the Western powers. The communique also was hichly critical of NATO, of j American actions in Southeast I Asia, and of alleged West tier- man attempts to secure atomic : weapons. HARD BOILED j Waxahachie. Tex. - 'ITi - Talk about a tnuiih egg! High- j way Patrolman K. C. Winn, nvoptigating a trailer truck I hat overturned Wednesday Miri he found nfir unbroken rug in its 2n.OIIO-pnund cargo I el hen fiuit. P O U V. v. STRETCHY STRAWS IN CANDY COLORS! on luscious Vanilla Grmc ca1 c.v' Sffttchablc sf'a m dfifctat-io Dis t v Ch.xol,ttr 'n Tatls A'o aailat'lt in LiCO'iCf with Di"ifV " Fntnt' $88 SUMMER'S COMING-If spring conies, can summer be far) behind? This is a question old mother nature answers by put ting all of her fair children to work in the spring. This honey , bee is busy gathering all the plants have to offer, and in I turn the plant is spreading it's seeds to insure reproduction. ! Many young birds are to be seen at this time of the year, learning to fly and causing much laughter by observers. (UPI) Sad Sight Later that afternoon we took a guided tour of a part of West Berlin and saw much more construction going on . . . this time we saw blocks upon blocks of burned out filially ended when the wind came up and blew the tear gas back on the Vopos. Our bus stopped at various points next to the wall, allow ing us to have a good look and to permit those carrying cameras to take pictures. Whenever we would aim our cameras at the Vopos, they would raise their binoculars and stare at something. Check Point Charlie We moved to Check Point Charlie, the American con trolled entrance to East Ber lin. American soldiers, West German police, and West Ger man army men, all armed, moved about and checked on the few cars passing through just over the barrier were the Vopos and Russians. We saw long lines of apart ment houses all along the Wall which were vacated and the windows bricked up. At Bran denburg Gate we took pic tures of the Russian War me morial that was erected after world war n and tnen was wall and building, great heaps ! lct just inside Wcst Berljn of rubble, etc. A very sad i wncn the wa was buj), ,t sight, but throughout, ncw;was surrounded by barbed construction was under way. i wjre and two R,.ssian snMipr. spent about an hour were on unrd Tn used l0 the Wall, commencing I hav nnlv ,... ,!, . completely bricked up. At one point the wall cut through the middle of a cemetery. The people are not able to visit the half in the East Zone and so they place many floral dis plays against the wall next to the cemetery. Early the next morning, Carol, Billy, and I took a taxi back to the Wall and went along it for quite a dis tance, taking pictures and looking. Billy managed to get a number of pieces of masonry from the wall as souvenirs. Later that morning we walked through the Berlin zoo, only about two blocks from our hotel. The people of West Berlin appeared to be less hurried, more concerned about their fellow men, and definitely more cordial to Auslanders such as we than their fellow countrymen in Western Ger many. This is probably under- corner standable in terms of a group needed j under stress - they tend to turn to each other for help and support and to more easily tolerate outsiders they may feel are there to help them. Army Officer In Charge Thursday we reported to the military Bahnhof and boarded our train shortly after 6 p.m. It departed at 7:03, again pulled by an East Zone engine. As usual on this leg of the trip our cars were sealed and the military po lice moved through them quite frequently to assure that all was going well. The train always has a military commander, in this case an army first lieutenant, who is completely responsible for all aboard throughout the trip. Our first regular stop was at Marienborn. We were there from 10:41 p.m. until 11:37. During this delay we watched four Russian soldiers patrol ling up and down the tracks, each with a large submachine gun strapped to his back -just a suggestion of the things that go on in a police state. The next stop was Helmsteadt checkpoint and then we were rolling free in West Germany (asleep, I should add). We pulled into Frankfurt Haupt bahnhof at 6:36 a.m. Friday, caught a southbound train at 6:55 and were back in Gross Gerau at about 7:20 a.m. Seasons Greetings The FRESH FRUIT Season IS HERE! OAKTREE FRUIT STAND Is NOW OPEN Every Day Bringing You the VERY BEST in FRESH FRUIT, Locally Grown, When Available Located Between Medford and Phoenix on the Pacific Highway 99 1 Mile North of Phoenix TELEPHONE 535-1570 Wc along in the southern American sec tor, and moving through the center, French, to the northern, British sector. You read about it, you hear it on the radio, you say to yourself, Now that is a sur prising, an almost unbeliev able thing that has been per petrated", but this only sets the psychological stage, ap parently, for the impact of first sight. You see the West German police dressed in blue uniforms and boots, the difference you note is that they have semi-automatic car bines slung to their backs, the West German soldiers dressed in green uniforms and also fully armed, the wall of vary ing height with mortar splash ed about carelessly (as some defected to the West. Now there are two and they guard each other as well as the memorial! Divided Cemetery At one point where West Berliners had gathered in the past to signal their relatives on the other side, we saw card board walls about 100 yards behind the wall and 20 or 30 feet high which served to cut off all view from either side. 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