The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-14

The Cafe Unter den Linden had a fine, big awning which could be stretched out like a marquee over tables on the sidewalk, in summer time, but the hinges on it got rusty and nobody could be found to fix them, and so rain water was caught in the folds of the awning and ate holes in 1t. Cafe Schoen across the street has no troubles about main taining front. A couple of British f1re-bombs solved that many months ago. The fire-bombs destroyed the upper floors of the building and scaffolding was set up all around 1t to repair 1t, but the Russian war came and all the workers were called up so the scaffolding just stays up and hides the whole front of the building. There is lots of scaffolding along Unter den Linden. hiding the fronts of buildings no- body is any longer working on.
 All the embassies on that big street, the Russian, the American and the French, are empty now and closed up. When the Nazis closed the Russian embassy, they put big white streamer fifty yards long across the face of the building with black skulls and cross bones on either end of the streamer, and in the middle the words: Beware! This building is Being Fumigated!" People snickered. The Nazis re- moved the hammer and sickle on the door, but forgot the one on the top of the building in the center and it is still there. Even the big florists shop, Blumen-Schmidt, on the main street, is empty. I went in there once in November to buy some flowers for a friends birthday and when I saw how it was I told the salesgirl, my God. ct tn? She said, yes, she was sorry, but Udet had just been killed, and every time there is 8 state funeral they clean out not only the shop but also the hothouses. A little later I went back, but it was still empty and the salesgirl was sorry but Moelders had just been killed. I suppose if had gone back later, she would have said, sorry, but von Reichenau, then sorry, but Todt, and so on. Luck never changes, it continues being good,
 RIBBENTROP'S UGLY
 YELLOW PALACE
 Turning of Unter den Linden to the left down the government street, Wilhelmstrasse, you can see the only freshly painted building in Berlin: Ribbentrops ugly yellow palace, with ugly yellow snakes wrapped symbolically around spheres, that look like the world, on it's front pillars. He has just had it remodelled. All the rest of the buildings are getting dirty, even Dr Goebbels' formerly snow white propaganda palace. After six o'clock, you can't walk on the side of the street where the Fuehrer'S house is located. A cordon of po- licemen make you cross the street, for they are afraid of bombs after dark, even when the Fuehrer is not at home. The Fuehrer's yellow brown chancellery is still the same except that the enormous bronze doors on its front have been re- moved and melted down for the arms industry and replaced with big, brown wooden doors. The last building on the street before you turn is where the New York Herald Tribune office was until the Trib- une's correspondent, Ralph Barnes. was kicked out for saying German Russian relations were not so cor dial and might lead to an eventual conflict. Every time I pass the place, remember that last night spent with him in his offlce be- fore he caught the train, drinking cognac because he was very sad about being thrown out: Berlin was a good spot then. Ralph was killed in Greece: He would have liked seeing Berlin as 1t is now.
 Potsdamer Strasse, which runs from the Pschorr Haus down past the big Sports Palace where Hitler speaks when he comes to Berlin from the front, used to be a busy shopping center. It is now a row of derelict shops, all closed for dif- ferent reasons, and their windows dirty and exhibiting pictures which little boys drew in the dirt on the window with their thumbs.