Evening star., 1946-11-03
Rain Pours Down
From Gapins Ceilin4

There ure two doors on the right:
The first used to lead to a small
dining room; the second, to the
sitting room. The mine blast re-
duced both rooms to the unfinished
attic category. It pulverized the
plaster, blew out the street side
windows and their frames and, for
some unaccountable reason, blew
down the wall separating the rooms
Despite the fact that there are two
stories above this one, rain pours
In through gaping holes in the
ceiling. It also pours out through
holes in the floor, which has been
so weakened that it bounces when
Max, the Theurers' 2-year-old
toddles across it.
Kurt and Marianne now use
these rooms only to store what Is
left of the furniture which was In
them when they were inhabitahle.
The family does its living in three
rooms to the left Of the entrance
hall-a rather broken-down bath
room, tiny kitchenette and the
room in which, with~ Max, they
work, eat. play, entertain and sleep
This room is about 20 by IA feet.
It has one window, double bed, q
couch, a crib, carved oak side
board, a wall cabinet, standing
lamp, three tables, six chairs,
stove and an upright piano, bat
tered and tuneless, on which Mari
anne has not played in more than
. year. The room is always clean
and in order. But the wallpaper Is
dingy, the central lamp suspended
from the ceiling is minus two OF
its three bulbs and the plaster Is
badly cracked in two places on the
ceiling.
Most Berliners Live
One Family to a Room
The Theurers would not be able
to live in their two front rooms
even If these were inhabitable
Since housing is at greater pre-
/, MUM in Berlin than almost any.
thing else they would have beer
forced, by law, to rent these rooms
to other families, who would ther
have shared their kitchen and
bathroom facilities. Assuming they
had been allowed to keep the apart
ment, the only difference woule
have been that the Theurers, as
landlords, would have had few
more marks to spend each month
than they have now.
Most Berliners live about as they
do-one family unit to a room
Kurt's parents, for instance, had
two rooms and have had to sublet
one Of them. Marianne's parents
were bombed out Of their apartment
and now live in one room In some
body else's apartment.
Because they belonged to the
Nazi party life Is perhaps In some
respects harder for Kurt and Mari
anne than 1t Is for that mythical
character, the average" Berliner
But because they live in the Rus
sian sector it is in some respects
easier, too. They had coal last win
ter, for instance, when ordinary
Germans In the American sector
had none. They already have some
for this winter, while Germans in
our sector are still without coal
They get their meat ration every
10 days-our Germans cannot
count on such regularity, and may
get their entire ration all in one
lump in the middle of a hungry
month.
, The story of Kurt and Marianne
of little Max and the new baby
: that Is expected any minutes not
told here with the intention OF
1arousing sympathy for the Ger
mans. These people live a better
life than anybody did in Belsen
No doubt there are many who feel
with reason, that the Theurers de-
serve everything that is coming to
them. This account is dedicated
simply to the proposition that what
ever ones view as to what should
happen to these people, 1t may be
useful to know what, in fact, Is
happening to them.
Kurt Is a small man of 36, dark
haired and keen Of feature, with
,protruding ears and a large, bony
nose. He weighs 112 pounds, Is
pounds less than he did on the day
the European war ended.
On that day he was working, as