xperiencing such an attack, as the imperial capital.
Q: Did your parents try to prepare you as a child for such a thing? Were there conversations, exercises? How should one picture that?
Yes, as a child one was prepared at an early stage. I can remember well that there were a whole series of picture books, in which one found situations as they presented themselves later in the war. Burning houses for example. There were also games, dice games, which were already playfully introduced in kindergarten. I still have such a game in my work now in the Society of the Berlin Underworlds, with which we show our visitors how early one began in the ’30s to prepare children for such things. It was first and foremost fire precautions, to be afraid of fire, and also questions already of first aid. What do I do if someone is injured? Who do I have to tell?
Q: And in contrast, the reality. How did that look?
The reality was such that the terror and the powerful emergence of the war were not in sync with that which one had read or at least seen. On the contrary, the appearance in 1943 of such massive bombing attacks was a bone-crushing counterbalance to the preparation which one had begun so early.
Q: Can you describe that? What happened then when the alarm was activated?
When the alarm went off, one had to decide which shelter to make use of, if one wanted to go in the building in which one lived, in the so-called “splinter protection cellar” (as one could not even speak of “bomb-proof”), or if one sought refuge in a fortified concrete bunker, for example on Alexanderplatz and elsewhere. The most important thing was to reach the space. When that happened in residential buildings, one had to find the exit from the house the fastest way possible, from the third or fourth floor, without light. At the entrance below, one was already awaited by the air raid warden, whose shouting had a great impact on the people and who, with the lights out, hurried them along. Then one rushed into the cellar, or one had to go still further, and had to run to their respective bunker, like Alexanderplatz for example.
Q: And were there skirmishes, jostling, and panic then? Who can still come in, who can’t? Or how should one imagine that?
In the apartment building itself the situation was clear. It was more or less the same group of people who were received by the air raid warden and hurried along, so to speak. In the central shelters, however, the composition of the occupants was quite varied. In Alexanderplatz trains arrived with soldiers on leave from the front, who likewise left the trains and attempted to cross the square to reach the bunker. The example of Alexanderplatz demonstrated, however, that one can produce certain effects, such as panic, through structural measures. One did not have to negotiate any stairs in order to enter into the bunker. Rather, one affixed slides to such slopes. One ran downwards. For children it was to some degree even pleasant, in that they could run down such a ramp. Consequently there was little congestion in coming into these complexes. I still remember that clearly.
Q: Was fear noticeable, or was it disciplined?
I would make that dependent upon the year in which one experienced it. At the beginning of the war all of that turned out to be somewhat easier. I can remember precisely, in 1942 we had a relatively quiet year in Berlin. There are said to have been only nine bomb attacks, which is not many for the city. In this year there was complete steamboat traffic in the city. One could visit popular destinations for day-trips. My mother went with us to the Müggelsee and also the Spree baths. In other words, we still enjoyed the summer.
That changed abruptly after 1943. Behind every action which one undertook dominated the question, “Where is the next air raid shelter?” That was something which one could by no means forget. Parents didn’t let their children out of their sight.
Q: How long did it last? Did one perceive somewhat the attack itself? Did you perceive it when you were in the bunker?
Here, too, one must differentia