Green letters

1 May 60

Hi Sweetheart + Ma + Pa - all of you together, as usual with a big letter.

Well today was May Day in Berlin, so long awaited by us visitors from Stanford and by the people of east + west Berlin.

We began by taking the train (i.e. an inter-city rapid transit system - there are two, one underground and with more stops, one above with fewer stops, thus faster) to the Marx-Engels Platz in the east sector, the site of their huge parade rally. We arrived just at the 9 AM starting time, and couldn't get within a couple of blocks of the square because of the number of people and some blocked off streets. The initial feeling when we got off the train was like that of a big football game or parade - huge crowds, band music in the distance, various groups forming to march, a sense of excitement and carnival-like activity in the air. In each of the many side streets leading toward the Marx-Engels square were a block or two of groups preparing to march in the parade - this accounted for about 3/4 of the people, since almost everyone was marching in some group or another (if not "regimented", East Berlin is certainly well "organized". The first part of the parade was the actual military part - marching units of soldiers + sailors carrying tommy guns or rifles, and even doing the goose-step. After the armies came the weapons - tanks, big cannon, anti-aircraft, troop carrier trucks, etc; unfortunately 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 sports clubs, youth organizations, "factory fighting groups", all carrying colorful flags, posters, pictures of party heros, etc, all marching in step before the review stand. (By this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people through a gap in police restraining lines, and stood in good positions at one corner of the square itself, a fine view of the proceedings).

At about 10:30 we (oh, we was Dr. Tarshus, Dr. Whittaker, Dr. + Mrs. Boerner, 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 + west Berlin) in the gigantic Platz der Republic. This is a huge open space about (a very rough guess) 1/4 to 1/2 mile each way; there were estimated 750,000 people there, to hear three speeches by west German and Berlin officials. To get any feel for the magnitude of the occasion 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 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 the usual 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, caught the last hour of the parade there (which lasted 5 hours!) - which was closed by 30 units of VolksPolizei ("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 bookstores - and with the help of Laurie's Russian visa I was able to buy a beautiful book on Van Gough, which I had been refused on 5 previous tries (cost: $2.25, worth $18 in the U.S.). I've bought several others by now, including two big works by Marx and Engels and Lenin (30c each for 500 pages), and 4 long play classical records (Tschaikowsky, Mozart, etc). With the exchange of east marks being over 4 to 1 in west Berlin (this is illegal to the east Germans) the prices are ridiculously low!

Tonight I'm staying home, partly because I'm 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 so reading and thinking to do. Maybe if my observations end up being organized enough I'll write them down and send them on to you - for there is surely much to be learned and understood about Berlin in the U.S., 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).

Mom - the trucking job sounds like great money - any chance of a weekend off once a month or so? Also Tuck would save a lot to live at home, don't forget, even at [Jeans?]. Let me now soon about Mrs. Craven + what works out. Keep tax money until summer.

All my love to you all, George

Dearest Annie and Folks

28.4 5:30 pm I have a few free minutes now before going out for the evening - this time to a concert of the Berlin Philarmonic - so I'll begin a letter to you, finish it late tonight or tomorrow morning as I have time.

We have spent both morning and afternoon in seeing the refugee situation. We began this morning at the main reception center here in West Berlin, where the refugees come first of all after crossing the border into East Berlin and then crossing again into West Berlin. A sketch might make the various geographical terms [clear?]

[sketch]

First of all we had a very informative lecture from the director of the center, himself a refugeein 1951. Some statistics he gave were well worth repeating. Since WWII there have been 3.4 million refugees from East Germany, not counting those from other lands such as Latvia, etc, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, etc. Germany has a present population of about 54 million; of these 13 million are refugees from somewhere behind the Iron Curtain - i.e. 25% of the whole population! That's a lot of people to absorb, especially when 3/4 of them had another language, customs, etc. and of course none of them could bring more than a suitcase or so with them, many of them not even that much, so it was also quite an economic problem (and still is too!). Even more interesting are the more current figures - for example the monthly refugee flow so far this year: Jan. - 5300 Feb. - 5900 Mar. - 8000 Apr. (to 4/26 only) - 14000.

Over the Easter holidays they had over 1000 every day!! One reason for the rise since February is that the communists have put on a big push to collectivize the the farms, and also the hand workers, etc who remain self employed. This has as the numbers show, driven thousands of farmers to make the very dangerous trip to Berlin to escape to the West, where they must now face the difficulty and hardship and uncertainty of starting life from scratch. The numbers of farmers jumped from 200 in January to 2400 in the first 3 weeks of April, after the new laws came in. The psychological importance of West Berlin as an escape valve for refugees from communism cannot be exaggerated!

After the background speech we split up into groups of 10 to sit in on the actual interviews given to all new refugees. These people must show good reasons for having left the communist country in order to be granted refugee status in West Germany (thus preventing infiltration, and also preventing the complete flooding of West Germany with refugees to house, clothe, feed), and hence they are questioned by a committee of 3 former refugees to verify these reasons. We got to listen to four cases, were permitted to aks questions when we didn't understand something - this was I think the most informative experience of the day, giving a unique insight into how communism goes about its slow but relentless job of taking over the lives of the common people in service of the state.

continued 4/30

The first case was a man and his grown daughter; the family had been

operating a private laundry business in a suburb of East Berlin. A couple of years ago, in order to put greater economic pressure on such private businesses (+ force them to form larger "People's Factories"), the state passed a law that a factory would now be any business employing more than 3 people (previously the number had been 11). Thus this family had to begin paying factory as well as personal taxes; over the years these taxes were raised to even more pressing levels. Also there are laws restricting the amount people can pay such private businesses (i.e. price controls to eliminate friendly assistance from neighbors, make profits impossible) and also restricting where their goods can be sold. Such economic pressures as this were eventually supplemented by direct threats that the business would be closed and the people forced to work in the "people's factory". At this point they fled as refugees.

The second man was a lawyer, had been working as a tax advisor in a town in East Germany. The state had over the years been collectivising the farms and handworkers in his community and thus eliminating his clientele (who must deal then with the state's tax advisors). As a more imminent personal distress, one of the sons (there were two sons + wife who fled with him) had been detected writing unfavorable comments in a private letter to a friend in the western zone - when this was somehow discovered he was brought up for punishment, given an alternative of joining the secret police and spying on his schoolmates (really, this is no fictional horror story - it happened!). With the threats on his son and the pressure on the father to become a state lawyer (which means joining the party too), the family fled to West Berlin, will go on to Stuttgart where the man has a job arranged through friends.

The third and fourth cases were both farmers, fleeing in face of the pressure to give up their private farms and join collective farms, as I already mentioned. Here we observed, the stress has been more openly political. They (the party organization) call meetings in each town, request that the farmers voluntarily sign up for the party and collectivization (thus they can say in propaganda that it was voluntary, with the people's support); those who don't sign are then pressured to sign ("voluntarily" mind you) by city officials, visits from party people, even loud speakers going through the streets screaming the man's name as a "friend of Adenauer". If the "voluntary" appeal doesn't work the man is, I think, then required to join anyway, and of course his stalling makes him the less popular in the government's eyes. As one side note on the dangers involved in a refugee's flight to the West - on of these farmers came by train with his wife. He and his son (with the son's wife and two young children) had arranged to leave at the same time, travel separately (for greater safety in smaller numbers), and meet in Berlin. But there is so far no sign of the son and grandchildren - they were either delayed, or picked up by the police (it is illegal to flee, try to flee, or even to know of someone's fleeing without reporting it to the police)! As I realized the torment this couple must

be suffering not knowing their son's fate the personal brutality of the totalitarian system really hit me, and I felt literally almost like crying in sympathy.

Thursday afternoon we went to a refugee camp to observe the living conditions of some of the really unfortunate ones - those who cannot work (as injured veterans or old people) or cannot find work, and those not granted full refugee status in the hearings (who must therefore just remain in such camps indefinitely). They live in dreary old barracks converted to this use from old munitions warehouses etc - they usually have very little income, and little hope, and the life is pretty depressing - small 1-room apartments, with beds and furniture crowded (and I mean crammed) into the tiny space - often families of 6 or more in this small space. This is just one more hazard of becoming a refugee - the situation has to be pretty unbearable in the east zone for people to risk such a future.

On Friday morning we were free to do as we wished, so I went into East Berlin to walk around. Went to several bookstores - but had no luck in buying anything yet - there are controls on spending the east German currency and I'm still looking for a store that will overlook these. It's easy to buy propaganda material or history, art, etc of the communist countries, but as for general books on art, etc., it's much harder. Then we went for a couple of hours to an exhibit in an east Berlin museum - part on "15 years of Freedom in Hungary" and part on the history of the fight of the German communist party against nazism and imperialism." Very artfully displayed - large blown-up photographs, etc, with of course some propaganda slant on the historical events. It's fascinating here in Berlin to see and hear the competing propaganda efforts of both east and west - lots of important issues have been sharpened and clarified in such an atmosphere, though I think if you stay here too long you would gradually be shifted over to a hard pro-western line - most of the officials (even American) we have heard have done so.

Yesterday afternoon we had a rather ordinary reception by an official of the West-German govt. - coffee and speeches, etc. Then last night a social gathering with students of the Free University of Berlin, lots of talk, movies, etc.

Got to run again! Another "little" letter soon - sorry they're so rushed but there's so much to see and so much news to write.

I love you, George

P.S. Annie - Got your letter yesterday, even earlier than expected. I LOVE YOU! XX