e out spontaneously were picked up by the police, by the Gestapo, and that they were no longer in these shelters, that they were charged with being traitors to the Volk, among other things.
Q: You also experienced how enemies of the people, or alleged enemies of the people were treated. Can you explain that once again briefly, about the half-Jews, or those who were held to be half-Jews?
At the new Friedrichsstrasse 70 there was a respectable middle-class house. In the front of the house there were also several small business owners. It was a house which was highly esteemed so to speak. Extremely varied people lived in this house, but all were either employed or retired. The air raid marshal was a man who stood 100% on the side of the National Socialists, who could no longer be drafted into the Armed Forces due to his age, who always carried his air raid helmet with him, even beyond the event itself: Mr. Wernege. Already at that time the individual residents adopted a position against him. There was a saying at that time, an old German saying, “Give a German a function, and you won’t recognize him anymore.” That’s how Mr. Wernege behaved. It came about time and again that a child would violate the so-called blackout order, in that a small light would shine somewhere; a door was opened without the light inside having been extinguished first. Then he always roared immediately upwards through the house, “If that happens again, I’ll have to turn you in as a public enemy!” One was a public enemy in that instance.
In this house there lived a young theater director, whose ancestry was not 100% accounted for so to speak. He did not wear a yellow star, and as a result he was not viewed as a Jew. But Mr. Wernege had his information, and always gave the theater director a good talking to in the presence of all those in the shelter of the house, and informed him that he must verifiably demonstrate his credentials as an Aryan, because only Aryans belong in his air raid shelter. As a child that hurt me very much, because the theater director concerned himself with the children of the whole house and tried to raise their spirits in the terrible situation with little games. Of course as a theater director that is how he made his living. I never heard anything more about what became of this man.
There was another person who distributed the so-called ration cards. That was a person who had an important function in national socialist circles. With the ration card, one had control over the people. Who was held back in the city and who wasn’t. These cards weren’t handed out for a month, but for differing amounts of time. Sometimes for a week, sometimes for 12 days. Each time one had to check in with a clerk, Ms. Venske, and after that one received the ration card. My mother wanted to drive to Frankfurt am Oder with us children to see our grandparents, which was indeed encouraged by the government and the city administration, whoever was able should leave the city. Ms. Venske tried to prevent that by all means. She prohibited our departure several times by giving us the ration stamps one day later. She even said to my mother once, “Oh! You want to run away again and abandon the Fuehrer.” That’s the attitude that national socialists had toward others at that time.
Q: Was there hate toward the invaders? Did that break ground?
Of course there was hate toward the aggressors, particularly after 1943. I always have to mention that year, because the year 1943 took an intervening course in the question of the direction of the war. Not only had the bombers become stronger. The caliber of bombs and weapons had become stronger, and attempts to bring about destruction relied more heavily on incendiary bombs and fire than on explosive bombs of the traditional variety. These blazes also led to severe burns of people. I saw myself that people burned, and were covered with blankets and extinguished upon leaving the bunker on the way home, for example. This led to a situation where one was always prepared to believe that Germany could nevertheless win the war 