Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [178]
Russia, controlling Berlin’s only radio, refused to give the free parties a single minute of air time.
Mitte Borough, the center of the city, began to look like Moscow on May Day. Banners in defiant red and white hung from nearly every wall.
THE SOVIET UNION IS THE FRIEND OF THE GERMAN WORKING PEOPLE!
FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY THROUGH THE PEOPLE’S PROLETARIAT PARTY!
TURN BACK THE WARMONGERS!
NEW GERMANY MARCHES TO PEACE WITH OUR SOVIET BROTHERS!
REBUILD GERMANY THROUGH THE PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE’S PROLETARIAT PARTY!
WE STAND WITH THE WORKERS!
Sound trucks flooded the Russian boroughs and their newspapers and broadsheets inundated the city.
Sixty days before the election People’s Radio announced that all fruit and vegetables for Berlin would be supplied by the benevolent Soviet Union.
Under the auspices of the People’s Proletariat Party there was a display of free food such as had not been seen in years.
Free People’s Proletariat cigarettes were distributed at the factories.
The school system under the management of Heinrich Hirsch passed out free pencils stamped with the initials of the party and free notebooks carrying pictures of Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, with suitable quotations. The children were lectured on how to instruct their parents to vote.
“Spontaneous” parades and demonstrations were apt to erupt by the well-groomed Action Squads.
The specter grew ugly. Schatz’s SND brazenly kidnaped and beat free party candidates. The Action Squads grew bolder stampeding free party rallies right inside the Western Sectors.
Democratic, Christian, and Conservatives who wished to speak in the Russian Sector were forced to submit their speeches in advance and put their lives in jeopardy when they crossed over. As often as not free party rallies in the Russian Sector were canceled at the last moment for an imaginary infraction.
Hansen watched it grow to a point where the Americans were looking like damned fools. He did not trust either Falkenstein or the Democrats, but he could not justify American continuation in the city if they allowed a Communist takeover. His own staff quarreled over the intention of the mission. One group, largely from his State Department advisors, felt they had to get along with the Russians at any price. Neal Hazzard led the opposition, demanding American involvement in behalf of the free parties.
Hansen went to both the Pentagon and the State Department for policy instructions. There was no clear policy on the Berlin election!
Five weeks before the election a candidate of the Democratic Party from the Soviet Sector in Köpenick Borough disappeared. His body washed up on the Müggel Lake, days later.
On the fifth day of September, a month before the elections, a new sound was heard by three million Berliners.
“This is RIAS calling. This is Radio in the American Sector. This is the voice of freedom.”
The microphone was turned over to Ulrich Falkenstein, who began with his rally cry, “Berliners!”
Operation Back Talk had begun.
Chapter Nineteen
BERLIN WAS FULL OF homecoming soldiers and others in transit from the Soviet Union. They were emaciated and scraggly, mostly shoeless, with large rags wrapped around their feet. Once proud uniforms were tattered and stinking. Hollow eyes and bony faces told stories of horror.
Most of the Berliners ignored them. Once they had marched away as a symbol of German superiority. They crawled back now. The Prussian military tradition gave no glory to the bearers of defeat.
Other prisoners of war came from the West. These were more fortunate. Among their number was Gerd Falkenstein.
“Gerd! Gerd is home!”
Ernestine fell into his arms; Herta wrung her hands and wept, and Bruno pulled a hand free and pumped it.
“Oh God, oh God!”
“Son! How did you find us?”
“The Ami Red Cross. They are very efficient. Look at you Hilde! You are a woman!”
“Come in! Come in. Don’t stand in the hall.”
Gerd put down his worldly possessions, a single knapsack. They pulled him into the room and stood around him. He looked rather well: