Doomed

Jerje Granberg, a Swedish newspaperman, left Berlin in a car no money could buy but which he got for "two old suits, some socks, ties, and two pounds of coffee." In Sweden, he described the German capital as it awaits the Red Army siege:

"As far as the city stretches, fortifications block the streets and byways. When I drove from Berlin it took me 90 minutes to travel six miles because the barricades are so thick it is difficult to pass them. . . . If everything goes 'according to plan,' one may predict Berlin's conquest will require six to eight weeks.

"You have to be a born explorer to get vegetables in Berlin today. Householders who did not buy a winter's supply of potatoes last fall . . . must now eat dehydrated potatoes--if they can get any at all. . . . One cannot say that starvation has yet struck Berlin, but in the past two or three weeks it has become increasingly difficult to buy the full rations. . . ."

Like Frightened Animals. "I was in Berlin during that last great American [air] attack. I sought safety in an underground railway tunnel which is one of Berlin's 'safest' shelters. Thousands of people were packed together there. Then the first bombs came. The ground heaved, lights flickered. People scrambled about like frightened animals. . . . The lights in the tunnel went out. . . . Some pocket torches were lighted, but proved useless in the cloud of chalky dust that came welling through the tunnel. It penetrated eyes, mouth, nose and ears. People knelt on the railway tracks and prayed."

Screams in the Subway. "Then a heavy bomb crashed through the tunnel roof . . . and a wave of cold air, followed by dust, swept over us. In the distance someone yelled for a doctor. The clamor for help was taken up by many voices, which were drowned in the next wave of bombs, more fearful than the first. 'For heaven's sake, stop it!' a woman screamed somewhere in the darkness. 'Shut up with that,' broke in a rough man's voice. A stir ran through the tightly packed people.

"The all-clear finally came. Above in the railway station there were dead. Hardly any of the crowd . . . paid any attention to the dead. In the square a hurricane of fire raged. Smoke and flames limited visibility to less than 100 yards. I was blinded by smoke and soot.

"High military staffs were evacuated from Berlin in haste last week and the capital is supposed to be declared a fortress soon. Whether the Government will remain in Berlin is uncertain, but it seems improbable, since all civilian life is to be placed under military authority. With the proclamation of Berlin as a fortress, the last chance of escape . . . will be practically eliminated. In reality this opportunity has not existed for the civil population for weeks. Berlin simply can't be evacuated because there is no place to go and no means of travel."

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