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
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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
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STRETCHY STRAWS IN
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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.
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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.
It was in this section that we
saw many East Berlin women
and children sitting in the
windows of their apartment
houses looking out to the
west and watching us. It was
really hard to believe that
they were not free to walk
down the street and greet us
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