Milford chronicle., 1957-10-25
Interesting Letter
From Anne MiIbury
CONTINUED from page one)


mark, worth 1/16 of a U. S. dollar.
1t is worth ia of the West Ger
many mark. That makes it worth
GA cents which is not much. The
mark pieces are made of aluminium
Our family with whom l am
spending this year, was no more
affected by the changing that many
others but no one had fear. 1t was
so quickly cleared that we had
milk Monday morning. We had had
visitors from Thursday until Sun
day and on Sunday morning they
left in their car to go back to
West Germany. At the gate on the
Autobahn, to go through the East
Zone, they were told they must
wait. This was at a. m. They
were not allowed to go through.
Luckily, they were the fourth car
and in back of them were about
15O other cars. Someone had to al
ways stay in the car, which was
very firing. My brother, toward
night, made a last visit to them
bringing food at IL p. m. They had
Got eaten ali day. At that time the
cars began moving, and our friends
were one of first ones after the
fbusses and trucks went through.
A halt such as this greatly affects
Berlin. We are like an island here,
with no food produced on our own.
The trucks in Helmstedt with food
had to wait a long time, so it was
lucky we had milk Monday morn
ing. There is only one highway
through the East Zone. l wanted to
go early Monday morning to see
the line of cars Il had been away
on Sunday and knew nothing of
the new money! but by that time
all was cleared. Every hour in the
night cars were going through.
Even at a matter such as new
money, / think the Russians cannot
do right. They did not change the
metallic money. They only changed
the paper money-tO make worth
less all money in the hands of
foreigners and the large savings
of the inhabitants, which is taboo
to the Russians. The ordeal was so
. unorganized that people had to
wait five hours on Monday for the
new money. This was not enough. |
Everyone who had a personal ans |
weis identification card for Is
years or over) received BOOM
whether he had 10 pfennig or 1000
marks. This was hard on families
with many children under Is years,
only 600 marks. l saw a new paper
mark which our maid had She |
comes three times week and lives
in East Berlin. 1t was just like the |
other only a new color-a bright !
pink, which she said when dirty
will look like the old money and
maybe will can be slipped through |
between the old. This is the second !
time in years that the currency
has been changed, showing the in
stability of the "Deutsche Demo-
cratic Republic. A stupid but |
laughable thing (all is so absurd |
and tragic one must laugh) is the
copyright date on the new money |
1856. Not 1857 but 1855. / was
never so surprised in my life. My |
mother then explained to me that /
in 1855 the Russians wanted to
change the money for the same
reasons, but too many people had
knowledge or IL ana TOOK all OF
their money, changed it into marks
and bought clothes, ETC., in West
Berlin. Because of this, the gov
ernment postponed the change in
currency and sprung it last Sun
day-a complete surprise-not a
soul knew about it, East or West,
and then being Sunday, it was too
late to make purchases.
Well, this only caused a ruckus
for two days and on Tuesday all
was again normal Even the trolley
cars stopped for Is hours and no
stores were open in the whole of
East Zone for one and half days.
Well now the real poor will be
richer, the poor will be again
poor and the rich will become poor.
So every one is happy. CD An ap-
prOpriate conclusion was told by a
lady from East Berlin. A small
group, of people were together in
East Berlin and a squad of Russian
soldiers passed by, so a little three
year-old boy innocently said, "Hier
Kommt unser Freund!" - Here
comes our friend.
Love and best wishes from the
Divided City
Anne Milbury