Jonathan Dickens on Berlin’s Techno Terror Transformation
70 years ago (on 19 March 1944, the US and UK air forces unleashed their biggest ever raid on Berlin, after 363 consecutive days of bombing.
3000 tons of explosives were dropped and 25000 people died.
At midnight, in the middle of the night-time raids, Hitler issued the Nero Decree, effectively declaring war on his own people, unleashing the darkest part of this city’s history. 17000 unexploded memorials to this time still lie in the ground of this city.
I’m honoured to know people who went through this horror as children. They have grown up into some of the most tolerant, kind and wonderful human beings I’ve met, determined in their own way to put the horrors of their parent’s generation behind them.
The ones I know don’t moan about immigrants, for they’re grateful anyone showed an interest in this divided wreck of a city.
They don’t moan about techno parties, for the sound of people having fun in a place that has witnessed so much horror is a vindication of what they have worked for.
If you are lucky enough to know one of these people, treasure their company & their wisdom, cos they won’t be around forever. Never forget, and never trust a politician. Peace and out.”
- “It is a mistake to think that transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, which have not been destroyed, or have only been temporarily put out of action, can be used again for our own ends when the lost territory has been recovered. The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the slightest regard to the population. I therefore order:
- “1) All military transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, as well as anything else of value within Reich territory, which could in any way be used by the enemy immediately or within the foreseeable future for the prosecution of the war, will be destroyed.