The Berlin Lift

 

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They say history repeats itself, and none is more similar to what's happening in Ukraine right now than the eleven-month-long Berlin Airlift when Soviet forces blockaded rail, road, and water access to Allied-controlled areas of Berlin from 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949.

 

Yours truly before we were airlifted out of Berlin

 

I, together with my mother and three sisters, was amongst the 48,000 people that were airlifted out of Berlin during the Russian Blockade. Ours was a freight plane that had landed tons of coal. As soon as the coal had been unloaded, we were flown out to a new life in the West.

 

Commemorative postage stamp of the Berlin Memorial, first issued on September 1, 1948

The "Notopfer Berlin" postal tax stamp was introduced as a consequence of the Berlin blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949). The 2 pfennigs that were collected were intended to benefit the West Berlin population who suffered economic hardship. This stamp was in obligatory use until 31.3.1954 but was still used when I began my articled years in 1960.

 

Maybe Montgomery Clift as pilot Danny MacCullough in "The Big Lift" tells a better story than any documentary ever could:

 

 

That was in 1949. Sixteen years later, I made an even better escape to Australia, but you already know of this as I'm still here to tell the tale.

 

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