Armageddon_ A Novel of Berlin - Leon Uris [32]
In Rombaden, resistance collapsed. The population is demoralized, scared stiff and getting hungry. So far we have averted panic, epidemic and serious crime, but the place is one hell of a mess.
Here’s a thumbnail and unofficial survey. Hank Greenberg, my engineer, estimates 40 per cent of all housing completely destroyed, 20 per cent partly destroyed. He has a monumental demolition problem to raze the unsafe buildings. As for the rubble, he says it may be years before it is all cleared. The power plant is 60 per cent out but one of the generators is operable. No light or electricity for the civilian population is possible for months. The telegraph lines are completely down. The phone system is about 30 per cent in operation. All public transportation is kaput. The radio station is completely demolished and cannot transmit. Both bridges are down. The rail yard and boat yards are the damnedest messes you’ve ever seen. Both inoperable. The Machine Works is 85 per cent destroyed above the ground (but there is a vast underground assembly plant which used slave labor from the concentration camp) and the other factories about 80 per cent destroyed. Tell the fly boys their aim was pretty good.
Our urgent problem right now is that the sewage plant and waterworks are both out of order. Dr. Grimwood, my health officer, has declared the river contaminated. We have been using water wells and have rationed the Germans to one bucket of water per day per family.
As for sewage removal, we have set up a honey-bucket system. The buckets are collected daily and carted out of town. We have been using arrested Blacklisted Nazis on this working detail. It’s good for them.
Meanwhile, the sewage plants and waterworks have our A-1 priority. Greenberg believes we can get them in at least partial working order in time to avert an epidemic.
Grimwood believes that present medical facilities can handle a small emergency (because of the Medical College) but, of course, we don’t know the medical problems we face when the concentration camp is liberated.
On the plus side.
Seizure of the banks, newspapers, business firms, etc., has gone off without a hitch.
We have formed two labor battalions who, along with some 2500 POW’s, have started rubble clearance, demolition, etc.
Blessing has seized the jail and has been able to keep law and order with his meager force. The people are too beaten to offer opposition. We have one of Dundee’s companies doing guard duty and use them as a “back up” force. Blessing and Arosa have rounded up over a hundred Blacklist so far (our honey-bucket brigade).
The Romankunsthalle is okay. So is the cathedral. However, Trueblood will have a curator’s nightmare as everything has been crated and stored in basements for safekeeping.
Speaking of irony, Dante Arosa and Duquesne found intact all the legal records, births, deaths, marriages for Rombaden/ Romstein for the last three decades. Why they weren’t destroyed is a mystery. It is too early to say what these records will turn up, but you can bet it will be plenty.
We weren’t so lucky with the Nazi records. Kurt Von Romstein, the Nazi Gauleiter, destroyed their records, then committed suicide. So far, neither brother, Baron Sigmund or Count Ludwig, has shown up.
In all, these people have brought an unbelievable disaster upon themselves. I think that the quick reaction of our team held the line. I think we can continue to hold the line and keep a semblance of human life going except for one problem which looks insurmountable.
Dale Hickman, my food man, says there’s enough stores m reserve for about six weeks at a minimum ration of 1200 calories per day. The main source of food is in the District but he suspects there will be a poor harvest. Even in the best of times this area could not support itself in food production. I have delayed issuing food-ration cards until we open the concentration camp. I feel the inmates there rate a priority on the food. For now, we have soup kitchens. But, the food