"BERLIN IS DEAD"

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 136, 10 May 1945, Page 5

"BERLIN IS DEAD"

ALLIED DEVASTATION

FAMOUS STREETS WRECKED (N.Z. Press Association.-—Copyright.) (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) RUGBY,'May 9. "Berlin is a city of the dead; as a metropolis it has simply ceased to exist," says a correspondent who was there yesterday. "Every house within miles of the centre seems to have had its own bomb. I toured the capital from the east to the centre and back to the south this mornirig. The scene beggars description. "I have seen Stalingrad; I lived through the entire London blitz; I have seen a dozen badly damaged major Russian towns. But the scene of utter destruction, desolation, and death as far as the eye can see in Berlin is something that almost "baffles description. The bliss on London was a bank holiday compared with this. "Dozens of well-known thoroughfares, including the Unter den Linden, from one end to the other are utterly wrecked. The town is literally unrecognisable. Alexanderplatz, in the east end, where the Gestapo headquarters were, is a weird desert of rubble and gaping smoke-blackened walls. From the Brandenburg Gate everything within a radius of two to five miles is destroyed. There does not appear to be one house in 100 which is even useful as a shelter.

"Among the hundreds of well-known landmarks which have disappeared or have been irreparably damaged are the former Kaiser's Palace, the Opera House, the French, British, American and Japanese Embassies, Goering's Air Ministry, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry, and the Bristol and Adlon Hotels. Hitler's Chancellery in the Wilhelmstrnsse is like some vast abandoned ancient tomb of the dead."— Official Wireless. GHOSTLIKE PEOPLE.

A Press Association cablegram states: Reuter's correspondent says the only people in the streets of Berlin who ldok like human beings are Russian soldiers. The Russian authorities said there are 2,000,000 inhabitants in the city, but they are mostly in thp remote suburbs. In the centre of the city you see only a few ghostlike figures of women and children — very few men—queucing up to pump water.

If Stalingrad, London, Rotterdam and Coventry wanted avenging they have had it, and no mistake. All observers today agree that it would probably be impossible to rebuild the centre of Berlin for many years, if ever.

Fires are still burning here and there and the dull sound of an exploding mine or dynamite being sprung can be heard every few minutes. Several Red Flags fly on the top of the Reichstag, which is burned hoi-, low. The Tiergarten, opposite the Reichstag, looks like a forest after a big fire. Thei;e has been heavy street fighting here. The correspondent says he motored from the Tempelhof airport in a car driven by a Russian wno Juid come all the way from Stalingrad and during 30 minutes' driving saw only six houses which he was unable to see straight through and where there were signs of habitation. The population and Red Army troops are trying to clear some of the streets, but like trying to shovel sand from the Pyramid's of Egypt. • The'Russian Command has already erected hugh sketch maps at the main Eiiuares and crossings without which it would be impossible to find one's, way in this now unrecognisable city. Except for the noise of an occasional Russian army car or the gentle trot of small horse-drawn carts there is complete silence over the city and the air is permanently filled with rubble dust. . . ' However, one sign of lite is the interminable columns of displaced people of all European nationalities who appear animated more by the homing spirit than by any clear -dea as to whither they are going. These arc columns, sometimes a mile long, of people two and three abreast draw ing tiny carts or wagons. NO SIGN OF VENGEANCE.

The Russian Military Command is alreadv feeding hundreds of thousands of Berliners.. The Red Army seized what food stocks the city had and added to them from its own supplies. Berliners get daily a little meat sugar, and coffee, a few potatoes, and more bread than many got in Moscow durinor the winter of 1942. The Bussians obviously are not taking any vengeance againsc the population. The Russian troops'are cheerful, enduring, and good-natured, the correspondent says. He asked a well-known Russian writer who was attending the surrender ceremony why the Russians bothered about the population. He seemed surprised at the question and replied "We must look after the people; we cannot let 2,000,000 people German executives of public utility undertakings voluntarily placed themselves at the disposal of the Russian Command and Berlin workers reported to Russian Command posts saying, "We arc your soldiers—we work for you." . Many wounded German soldiers from underground hospitals have been sent to hospitals organised by the Russians where German doctors and nurses attend them. The Russians hope to have part ol the underground railway system working by the"middle of the month. Meantime hundreds of burned, out tramcars stand on the street tracks, dead horses still lie in some streets, and manv parts of the city are dangerous because of the risk of thousands of walls collapsing.