Paul Mattick
OBSESSIONS OF BE RLIN
As against the terror of the bombs, the actual conquest of Berlin
was of lesser significance to its inhabitants. Nevertheless, the artillery
tore new holes into the ruins, shot away parts of the surviving buildings,
killed many people running for food and water. The spray of machine
guns is visible almost on every house, every floor, every apartment
door. The tanks ground down the streets and sidewalks. The battle was
fought section by section, street by street, house by house. It is said that
sixty-thousand Russians died in the struggle for Berlin. The estimate
may be incorrect, but it reveals the ferocity of the struggle. There are no
guesses on the German losses. They lost everything-particularly, how–
ever, their illusions about the Russians.
The Russians are Berlin's second great obsession. The rape of the
city is burned deep into the minds of its inhabitants because it is associ–
ated with their greatest disappointment. Long before the fall of the city,
refugees from the East told horrible stories about the Russians' be–
havior. So did the radio. But wishful thinking discounted these stories
as exaggerations and propaganda. At any rate, it could not get worse
than it was. The same hope that welcomed Hitler
in
exchange for the
depression welcomed now the Russians in exchange for the bombings.
Berliners who had once belonged to the Communist Party, or
sympathized with it, looked upon the Russian conquerors as their
liberators. Their disappointment was consequently greater than that
experienced by the great mass of apolitical people and passive Nazis.
Even the less exposed Nazis hoped for a quick fall of the city in order
to escape a fight that no longer made sense. The more realistic among ·
them killed their families and themselves.
And there were those who had welcomed the Allied bombers in the
hope that the misery in their wake would lead to revolt. But the terror–
machine of the Nazis proved to be stronger than the despair of the
people. The atomization of the masses was sufficiently advanced to allow
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