Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

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these went along another street and we only saw them at a distance. The rest of the parade was at least semi-civilian, though the pervasive sense of a people organized into a chain of little fighting units existed for us. There were thousands in "sport clubs", youth organizations, "factory fighting groups", all carrying colorful flags, posters, pictures of party heroes, etc. - all marching in front of the review stand in step. (By this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people thru gap in police restraining lines, and stood in good positions at one corner of the square itself, a fine view of the proceedings).

About 10:30 we (Dr. Tarshus (George's Econ. prof.), Dr. Whittaker, Dr. and Mrs. Zoerner, Laurie Hutton and I ) worked our way through the crowds back to the train to go over to the west side rally, just across the border between east and west Berlin in the gigantic Platz der Republic. This is a huge open space about 1/6 to 1/8 mile each way; there were an estimated 750,000 people there, to hear three speeches by west German and Berlin officials. To get any feeling for the magnitude of the occassion just try to imagine that many people assembled in one place- Big Game is 100,000, and this made that tiny. I was held up briefly to take pictures and it was an endless sea of faces in every direction. But the tone here was quite different from that of parade and spectacle in east Berlin. People were coming and going in steady streams at the edges of the crowd, but there was a arge [large] central area where the people stood still, watched and listened. The spirit was generally serious, thoughtful, people listening attentively, clapping at some points. It was quiet and serious the whole time as though the people appreciated the gravity of the situation and the importance of their position as an outpost of the free world. The speeches themselves were generally anti-Communist ("we will not surrender our freedom" variety.

As the west rally broke up (it lasted only 1 1/2 hours) we went back to the east sector and caught the last hour of the parade there (which lasted five hours)- which aws [was] closed by thirty units of polikspolizer (people's police) 100 men in each unit. Thus it closed on the same militaristic note on which it began.

We spent the rest of this afternoon again looking around a couple of book stores- and with the help of Laurie's Russian visa- I was able to buy a beautiful book on Van Gogh which I had been refused on 5 previous tries. Cost $2.25- worth $18 in the USA. I have bought several others by now including two big works by Harz and Engels and Lenin (30c each for 500 peces) and four longplay classical records with the exchange of east marks being over 4-1 in west Berlin (this is illegal to the east Germans) the prices are ridiculously low!

Tonight I am staying home, partly because I am tired and my feet are all walked out! But also I have to prepare a short talk for a meeting tomorrow morning in which we try to pull together our experiences and observations here in Berlin. So I have some reading and thinking to do. Maybe if my observations end up being organized enough I will write them down and send them on to you- for there is surely much to be learned and understood about Berlin and the US and every little knowledge helps.

Tomorrow is then our last day of sightseeing- we leave after dinner for the burg, arriving about 1:30 AM.