BERLIN'S CHRISTMAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1943, Page 3

BERLIN'S CHRISTMAS

GRIMMEST IN ITS HISTORY MORE DETAILS OF BOMB DEVASTATION. THREE-FIFTHS OF CITY DESTROYED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, December 21. Two Swiss girls who have just arrived at Basle, Switzerland, from Berlin, told the Basle “National Zeitung” that a few days after the R.A.F. raid on Berlin on November 22, the authorities officially announced that there had been 6000 bomb victims on that night alone, and that as a result of the full series of air-raids, three-fifths of Berlin had been destroyed and 1,750,000 were homeless in Germany. Berlin’s fifth Christmas of war will be the grimmest in the city's history, says the Berlin correspondents of Swedish newspapers. It will be a more Spartan Christmas than ever before, says the “Social Demokraten’s” Berlin representative. All thoughts of Christmas presents, Christmas trees, and candles have ceased to exist, and it is extremely unlikely that the people will have more than a passing interest in Christmas. ’ There will be few. family gatherings in Berlin. Most of the children have been evacuated, and thousands of homes are gone. Berliners are living in the most primitive conditions. Many homes are without gas or light and have very little heating. A message from the “Aftonbladet’s” Berlin correspondent says “the streets of Berlin show a horrible picture of destroyed and burnt houses, in the cellars of which coal stocks are still

burning, three weeks after the first great November raid. “There will be no festive spirit this Christmas. Business streets, shops, and restaurants are laid in ruins.”