Fear Grandchildren,
I have never experienced war, so I can’t even begin to understand what it was like to live in Germany in 1945. The closest I’ve come to experiencing war is watching movies like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Shindler’s List from the comfort of my couch in the security of America (though I sure didn’t feel very secure on January 6th this year!). I fervently hope that neither you, nor Papa and I, nor any of us ever experiences war. My guess is that war will change -- with systems, rather than cities being destroyed and digital infrastructure, rather than people, being killed.
I don’t believe that the world will ever again see something quite like Germany in 1945 – thank God. But that year, in that country, impacted my father for the rest of his life.
Here is Dad’s description of the political environment in 1945:
The chaos of 1945 is almost indescribable. The Red Army was forcing the Germans to retreat in the east and the Allies were fast approaching from the west. By 1945, everyone knew that Germany had lost the war in a big way – even if it was never openly discussed.
(SlidePlayer.com. Published by Darren Dawson.)
The air war, which had already destroyed dozens of German cities, accelerated to a new level in 1945. Berlin alone received many more bombs than Germany had ever dropped on England during the entire war. Air raids continued, day and night. Cologne had only a few percent of its original population left; the rest had been killed or had fled to other cities in Germany, many of which would also be bombed in the first few months of 1945. In all, 3,500,000 German homes were destroyed, 20,000,000 German people were homeless. Very few German cities were spared, and many were 100% destroyed. Food was desperately short and the transportation system, which at one time had been the pride and joy of Germany, was breaking down.
Yet, there was no sign of any Allied success of the bombing campaign. Yes, the continuous air raids created a lot of hate in the population, but not (as the Allies pretended) against Hitler, but rather, against those who dropped the bombs on civilians -- mainly women and children -- on medieval churches, on the cultural heritage of a whole country. Of course, there also was increased hatred against the stubborn Nazi regime, but their control apparatus was still in place, and if anything, the punishment for “derogatory” talk was even increasing. Who would have dared? Even in early 1945, as Germany was obviously losing the war, it would have been suicidal to speak up against the regime.
To even imagine anything like Germany in 1945, one must pretend to visualize what a local parallel would be. For you, my California Bay Area children, imagine this: Oakland receives a major bombing once a week. The downtown is flattened; not a single building is spared. Freeways are completely destroyed. After a week, while houses in Oakland are still burning, there is another night-time air raid. Whoever is still alive has fled to Berkeley, to Albany, to Walnut Creek. Those places won’t be bombed because there is no industry to speak of. Every home in Berkeley now houses two or three extra families who have lost their home in Oakland. Men are off at war, except the very old and very young. And then it happens: Berkeley is carpet-bombed “to break the population’s will to resist.” The University is burning, so is Alta Bates Hospital. There is no water to put out the fires, no electricity, no food, no radio. The streets are littered with rubbish from the houses, and BART trains are hanging from the tracks. The tower of the Claremont Hotel and most of the hotel itself is level with the ground; a 4,000 pound bomb has hit it. Every house on University Avenue is on fire.
I remember this exercise by Dad as being very impactful! It really brought the war home, to something I could relate to – in magnitude, scope, and personal impact. But even then… well, I knew that it simply wouldn’t happen in the Bay Area. I was blessed with that sense of security, and of course I took it for granted. I knew nothing else but peace and security. Even the thought of destruction of the scale Dad describes coming to my Berkeley home was almost unfathomable.
Thus, not exaggerated, was the situation in the cities of Germany in 1945. And yet, most of us survived -- somehow.
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The only applicable Laws still issued in 1945 (in the general chaos of 1945, only three anti-Jewish laws are listed by Joseph Walk): January 15, 1945: (*13 . pg. 406):From the RSHA (issued by the “Reichssicherheitshauptamt”)[1]:
All Jews living in mixed marriages, who are able to work and are either citizens or have no citizenship, (Mischlinge classified as Jews included) are to be sent to Theresienstadt in a closed transport for labor duty. (Note: this is in contradiction to a directive from the Gestapo in Bad Kreuznach just three days earlier, which excluded primarily older Jews from mixed marriages, and Mischlinge below 16 years of age, but not underage Mischlinge classified as Jews).
Sorry, dad. I can’t even edit this one for clarity! I don’t get it!
The law (of 16 February) said that any files that pertain to activities against Jews are to be destroyed unless they can be moved, so they don’t fall into enemy hands.
[1] (National Security Main Office)
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