I was born in Stendal in what was to become the Russian-occupied East Germany. Soon after, in the dark of night, we escaped to West-Berlin. My brother Karl-Heinz, 13 years older than me, drove our old Adler car as far as Potsdam. From there my father took over and we raced across the so-called "Freedom Bridge" while Russian bullets flew past us.
For a time we lived in Grunewald/Zehlendorf but then came the blockade of Berlin and six of us, my mother, my older brother, my three sisters and I, were evacuated to West-Germany in a Royal Air Force Dakota.
The only memory I have of this life-changing event is of a lady who sat across from us in the plane as she had hidden away in her shopping bag a little dachshund who became agitated during the flight.
I have just now ordered from Germany the documentary "Die Luftbrücke" to at last find out a bit about the Berlin Airlift.
