Russia at war 1941-1945

our tanks with their infernal near-suicidal jaustpatronen. There were a lot of barricades all over Berlin. Finally, they capitulated on May 2. A large part of the population and thousands of soldiers were hiding in cellars and shelters. But even after the capitulation some SS-men and Hitler youths continued to fire at us from the ruins. This went on for a few days. Since then, there are still occasionally assassinations of Russian soldiers and especially officers; but, on the whole, everything is quiet... "

He admitted that, to put an end to these assassinations, the Russians had had to take hostages from amongst the numerous Nazis.

Berzarin claimed that in May 1945 the Russians had saved Berlin from starvation. He

gave figures for the gradual restoration of the underground-railway, tramlines,

telephones, gas supply, etc.—and then spoke of the rations. Every person received 0.75

lb. of potatoes a day, but the other rations among the five categories varied greatly: bread from 20 oz. to 10 oz., meat from 3 oz. to 0.66 oz., sugar from 1 oz. to 0.5 oz. Some food even had to be brought from Russia.

"But before long," Berzarin said, "the Red Army, now largely depending on its own supplies, will have to be fed by the Germans, and we are making the peasants grow as much as possible." He was planning to allow a "free market" in Berlin, which would encourage the peasants to bring their produce to the city.

The population of Berlin was already nearly three millions, and more people were

coming in all the time. The health services were a major problem: all doctors had been mobilised, and there were 40,000 wounded Germans in Berlin in special hospitals.

Housing was, of course, the worst problem of all: forty-five percent of Berlin's houses had been totally destroyed, thirty-five percent partly destroyed, and only some fifteen or twenty percent, mostly in the suburbs, were more or less intact. There was no work for most of the population, who were being used for clearing away rubble.

He also made it clear that it was "well worthwhile" under the Russians to be emphatically anti-Nazi, and all bona fide anti-Nazis were being highly favoured.

Anti-Nazis are being used by us for checking all appointments, particularly to the police force. The policemen are carefully chosen; even so, they are allowed to carry only truncheons, not firearms. In smaller jobs we allow nominal, non-active Nazis to remain. All ex-Nazis must report for work.

The cultural side is being developed; there are 200 cinemas in Berlin, and we show them Russian films, such as Ivan the Terrible. The centre of musical activity is the Radio Centre; here the German opera orchestra has been reconstituted under the

conductor Ludwig. Schools will be restored as soon as possible; but all the Nazi

school-books will have to be replaced. The problem of finding enough anti-Nazi

teachers will not be easy.

We have organised the municipality, complete with an Oberbürgermeister, a Dr Werner and, under him, sixteen departments—food, health, industry, trade,

administration, education, etc.

There was both comedy and pathos about the Town Hall of Berlin, in a former Insurance building, which had somehow escaped destruction, somewhere off the Alexanderplatz.

The Oberbürgermeister, Herr Werner, was a gaunt handsome old man of sixty-eight, wearing a long black frock coat, a stiff butterfly collar and black tie. He was a wealthy rentier with a villa at Lichterfelde, and the Russians got hold of him several days before entering Berlin proper, and had appointed him Oberbürgermeister.

[The Berlin City Government was composed of seven bourgeois, six Communist Party officials, two Social-Democrats and two nonparty members. Two were German

communists who had spent years in a Nazi concentration camp, but most of the other