Berlin - Again

     Mary's scrapbook only contains the letters and Ray's unpublished article about going into East Berlin. To satisfy my curiosity about his published articles, I had two choices - find the Kansas City Star-Times on micro-film or visit the scrapbooks Mary made of Ray's stories. Near the end of Ray's newspaper career, he donated these scrapbooks to the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas.

     I opted for the latter and a few weeks ago, Erin, Chris and I made the trek to the Spencer Library, but our search ended up empty because we asked for the wrong boxes. Also because the Library was about to close, we couldn't request any new boxes. Erin and I tried again last weekend and this time requested the boxes we actually needed.

One of the scrapbooks in the right box.

      In the scrapbook covering the time Ray was in Europe I found the articles he wrote about the Berlin Rally that was in his home movie.

Berlin, June 16—There is a feeling here that anything is likely to happen in the next 24 hours as West Berliners prepare to turn out tomorrow to hear Chancellor Adenauer address a rally to commemorate the June 17, 1953 uprising in East Berlin.

 

Adding to the interest in the celebration tomorrow is that this is the first to be held here since the East German erected somber wall of barbed wire and concrete around East Berlin last August 13 and that Adenauer is coming to speak.

Giant posters showing silhouettes of hands reaching up behind barbed wire have been posted on advertising kiosks throughout the West sector for days urging the Berliners to attend the rally tomorrow. (Shown in the above clip)

Berlin-June 17- Berlin, a thorn in the clenched fist of communism, turned out its thousands today to demand that the Soviet Union use its influence to end the wall of barbed wire and concrete around East Berlin.

Thousands of Berliners, jammed around the city hall, cheered lustily as Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Mayor Willy Brandt demanded in speeches that the city be reunited on the ninth anniversary of an unsuccessful revolt against communism in East Berlin.

 

More gunfire echoed earlier today across the East Berlin wall as two more refugees successfully escaped East German bullets and fled to freedom. The refugees were given asylum.

Thundering cheers brought interruptions as Adenauer, the robust-looking 86-year-old chancellor who defied Russian protests to fly here today to represent West German, and Brandt demanded an end to communist terrorism in the eastern sector of the city.

 

Banners of the West German republic hung across the front of the city hall four stories into the air and banks of flowers surrounded the speaking platform built on the city hall steps for Adenauer and Brandt.

 

Shields have been hung over the entrance to the city hall to show the various sectors which make up the Greater Berlin area. Those communities in the Eastern sector were represented by simple shields of black and white with a barbed wire painted across the center.

It was the first time Adenauer had come to address one of the June 17 rallies and his appearance was designed to symbolize the contention of West Germany that the East Germans have no right to exercise control over any sector of the city.

Brandt drew a great groan from the crowd as he reported that a 15-year old youth shot some time ago by East Berlin guards as he fled to West Berlin had died early today. He said Berliners would not forget this type of terrorism.

They cheered as he said that Berlin would be reunited sometime soon ad that all of its people would again be free. He said Berlin would someday again be the capital of a united Germany dedicated to freedom and liberty for all persons.

“Even a worm will turn against its tormentors at some time,” Brandt declared. “Certainly we are more than worms.”