Der Berliners

Having walked almost 28000 steps on my last day of stay at Berlin, I needed a break, some rest. And so I sat down on the green grass between the famous Berlin Dom and the Altes Museum. I closed my eyes for a few moments to recollect those beautiful places I had visited in the city and suddenly I saw a short man with toothbrush moustache standing on the huge steps of Altes with his hand raised in salute and blabbering like a madman in German.

    

    

I decided to walk up the steps, took the man by his ear and walked him around the city to meet a few people who he may have forgotten. I took him first to Willhelmstrasse and asked…“Do you know what that is?”

Meekly he replied, “I used to stay here in Berlin, but what on earth is this piece of steel doing here? It wasn’t there in my time.”

“That is George Elser, a carpenter by trade, who later worked as a clock maker. He almost killed you in Munich on 8^th November 1939 when you had gone there to celebrate the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 when, along with the communists, you tried to take power through an armed revolution. George had done immaculate planning and had fixed bombs on the pillars from where you were to deliver your speech. You, however, advanced your program and left the Beer Hall at 9.07pm after addressing a large crowd and after 13 minutes the bombs exploded bringing down the ceiling, killing 7 men and injuring many.”

“You were damn lucky. If you had blown off on that night at Munich, the world would not have seen the nightmare you brought upon it. George was caught, tortured by your men and died in a concentration camp in Dachau on 9^th April 1945, four weeks before the Allied forces defeated yours completely.”

I then dragged him to one of Berlin’s most iconic structures…the Reichstag or the parliament whereon it is written, Dem Deutschen Volke (For German People).

“Ja, I know this place well. We started a fire here in 1933 and blamed the communists. It was here that we forced President Hindenburg to give all powers to me and appoint me the Chancellor of the Reich.”

“But do you remember Julius Moses?” I asked. He looked lost. So I took him aside the Reichstag building where a strange memorial was kept.

“Let me refresh your memory. On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag met in Berlin. The main item on the agenda was a new law, the 'Enabling Act'. It allowed you, Mr. Hitler, to enact new laws without interference from the President or Reichstag for a period of four years. The building where the meeting took place was surrounded by members of the SA and the SS, paramilitary organisations of the National Socialist Party that had by now been promoted to auxiliary police forces. You had only 37% seats in the parliament and with terror tactics cowed down most of the opposition. With 444 votes in favour and 94 against, the Reichstag adopted the Act. These are those 94 brave parliamentarians who stood up for democracy and opposed you and your dictatorial plans.”

“These were the men like Julius Moses, who, you then had arrested and persecuted. That is why they are revered as protectors of democracy and their memorial stands outside the Reichstag to remind all what cataclysm dictatorship can bring about. All Dem Deutsche Volken.”

“Here, look at Berlin which is such an open city, there is but one building in one corner where a few windows are sealed.”

“Ja I know the place. My Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was living there. But why are the windows sealed?”

“He was the man who created not just aura around you but ensured every bit of news including what common people spoke about would reach the police and voices of protest would be fast put to rest. A part of his propaganda was to control film censorship. They called his ministry Reich Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. He ensured that only films that showed you in good light were produced. On a Christmas Day in 1937, Goebbels gave you 12 films of Walt Disney. Writing in his diary, Goebbels said, “The Fuhrer is very pleased and very happy about this treasure.”

“You were such a fan that you dreamt of creating a German version of Walt Disney’s studio, and instructed Goebbels to establish the ‘Deutsche Zeichentrickfilm GmbH’. The aim of the film company was to rival movies like Mickey Mouse while spreading the Nazi ideology and propaganda through a less aggressive entertainment source.”

“But Goebbels also ensured that no one ever spoke about one man in Germany…Charles Chaplin.”

“The reason is not difficult to guess. In the ‘The Great Dictator’, Chaplin played his trademark Tramp character, re-imagined as a Jewish barber in the fictional country Tomania. Chaplin also portrayed Tomania’s autocrat Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of you.”

“Ja, I saw the movie twice in my private theatre. I was heartbroken after this film and made sure no one uttered his name ever in Third Reich.”

“Had you paid heed to what Chaplin said in the movie even then, you could have averted so much bloodshed. In the famous speech, Chaplin goes on to say: ‘I should like to help everyone if possible—Jew, Gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another.’

“Now let me also show some other places close to the Reichstag that might bring back some memories and maybe some remorse even after so many years.”

 “This is the memorial to the 500,000 Sinti and Roma victims of your genocide. These were the gypsy people who you felt were the weak who had to be wiped out. The memorial consists of a dark, circular pool of water at the centre of which there is a triangular stone. The triangular shape of the stone is in reference to the badges that had to be worn by concentration camp prisoners. The stone is retractable and a fresh flower is placed upon it daily.” The words of the poem "Auschwitz" by Italian Roma Santino Spinello are written around the edge of the water basin:
"Sunken in face/ extinguished eyes/ cold lips/ silence/ a torn heart/ without breath/ without words/ no tears."

“And who can forget what you did to the Jews not just in Berlin but all over Europe. This is one of many such memorials in the city.”

I finally took him to a place near Potsdamler Platz. He recognized the place well. It was the only sign of Fuhrerbunker today.

“Ja ja this is where I had my bunker in Berlin. This is where I married Eva. This is where I met my end.”

I lost him there. Just then there was a Whatsapp message in response to my earlier blog on Germany. Wow…Ally texting me, “Hey Mate, are you in Berlin?” Yes at Potsdamler Platz, said I. “My wife Elizabeth just got transferred to Berlin and we are staying at an apartment right where you are. Can we meet?” Ally was a school friend who I last met 37 years ago when we passed out in 1982. And now from nowhere in a new world we connected…Mahakumbh for me and readily I said yes to the friend’s offer. In our younger days we raced each other in sports, Ally was always a step or two ahead but still we would find ourselves on the same podium often. And then we met!

All the frights and tragedies of those dark days and years were washed away in the flowing River Spree as we said, East is East, and West is West, and in West twain shall surely meet.

SS