HOMEWORK 4

Berlin 1945

Too tired to play video games, but not tired enough to fall asleep, I found myself watching The History Channel late one wintery night.  I managed to finish two episodes of “Pawn Stars,” before the programming switched to a WWII documentary.  I debated turning it off and going to bed, but glad I didn’t’ because it proved to be one of the most interesting, but dark documentaries I’ve ever seen.

Specifically, it was about civilian life in Berlin while under the siege of the Russians in 1945.  Berlin was nothing but rubble, supply lines were shot, and life for the average Berliner was wretched.  They couldn’t escape to the east in fear the Russians would kill or rape them (or both).   And they couldn’t escape to the west, not out of fear that the Americans and Brits would do the same, but that the Gestapo would kill them.  This left them trapped in a city that not only couldn’t support the population, but a city that would become their grave.  To survive they resorted to desperate acts.  They ate horses, leather from furniture and whatever else they could find.  And if this wasn’t enough it was all under the maddening backdrop of constant Soviet shelling.   It was arguably some of the most miserable living conditions humans had ever suffered. 

But where the documentary took a particularly dark turn was when it started showing footage of Berliners throwing parties in the midst of this hell.  I didn’t understand it at first until the narrator explained since these people were doomed, they logically came to the interesting conclusion they might as well live it up while they could.  Such “maniacal levity” was also documented by Albert Speer in his book “Inside the Third Reich” as he witnessed people being irrationally happy and cheerful even though their demise was imminent.  The documentary became even more insane when a lot of these parties ended up becoming “suicide parties” where the participants would break out the hidden booze, drink it up one last final time, and then all commit suicide at the end of the evening.  

My eyelids starting to get heavy but documentary was interesting so i had to force myself to continue watching it. These people have been living in extreme conditions yet they were throwing parties.