Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Back to Germany
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should visit certain camps for refugees in order to
get an idea of the great difficulties which had to be
overcome.
Lehrter Bahnhof is nothing more than a mound of
rubble. The most shocking thing we noted when we
arrived there, however, was not the tumbled down
walls and the totally destroyed roof, or the
apathetic and poorly dressed people who stood waiting in the
snow and slush in a long line to buy tickets. The
strange unreality of the place was accentuated by
the fact that there was a train standing on one of
the platforms. In other words, this heap of rubble
still performed the functions for which it had been
built. But these functions had been severely limited.
Two small signs announced that there were about five
trains arriving and as many leaving. To be allowed
to buy a train ticket in the Germany of 1946,
however, was a privilege which few were permitted to
enjoy. We had gone to the Lehrter Bahnhof to meet
a contingent of refugees from the east. For some
reason, they did not arrive, however, and instead we,
visited the bomb shelters where the refugees usually
were taken after their arrival. They were dark,
clammy, cold and bare rooms with wooden benches as the
only furniture. In the dim light of one room, an old
and miserably dressed man was lying on one of the
benches. He obviously had difficulty moving about.
He told us that he came from a poor neighborhood
in eastern Berlin, and that he was now travelling
somewhere west to try to find his son. His papers
were in order, he assured us, and he also had a ticket.
But his health was apparently very poor. He had
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