Memory of John F.
Kennedy
It is curious how the memory is comming back sometimes. Yesterday I was remenbered to John F. Kennedy by a foreign relative, one of the american Kauls. He was with his daughter Greta in that movie, where Lee Harvey Oswalt was caught by police authorities after he shot U.S. President John F. Kennedy down.
The circumstances to Kennedy's death are unclear upt to this day. The autopsy has revealed no unequivocal and since that time pieces of Kennedys brain are missing, which was injured by a bullet. One thing is certain, witnesses have testified, there were also shots from the front, not only from the publishing house the school book depository. The people were left about the results in the dark, because the documents are still closed until 2017.
The whole thing reminded me a little of Area 51, where also were facts deliberately withheld, just as the attack on 9 /11th on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
This is the kind that legends are forming and so it was with the death of John F. Kennedy.
But back to my memory. I was 15 years old and was on duty at the Youth Red Cross on the Rudolph Wilde Platz, which is named today John F. Kennedy Platz. We were very early and were on the yards of nearby houses placed tends for hospitals, with camp beds to treat the injured, to be reckoned with was medically able for the first aid. There was a huge gray dressed army of helpers.
It is curious how the memory is comming back sometimes. Yesterday I was remenbered to John F. Kennedy by a foreign relative, one of the american Kauls. He was with his daughter Greta in that movie, where Lee Harvey Oswalt was caught by police authorities after he shot U.S. President John F. Kennedy down.
The circumstances to Kennedy's death are unclear upt to this day. The autopsy has revealed no unequivocal and since that time pieces of Kennedys brain are missing, which was injured by a bullet. One thing is certain, witnesses have testified, there were also shots from the front, not only from the publishing house the school book depository. The people were left about the results in the dark, because the documents are still closed until 2017.
The whole thing reminded me a little of Area 51, where also were facts deliberately withheld, just as the attack on 9 /11th on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
This is the kind that legends are forming and so it was with the death of John F. Kennedy.
But back to my memory. I was 15 years old and was on duty at the Youth Red Cross on the Rudolph Wilde Platz, which is named today John F. Kennedy Platz. We were very early and were on the yards of nearby houses placed tends for hospitals, with camp beds to treat the injured, to be reckoned with was medically able for the first aid. There was a huge gray dressed army of helpers.
The Rudolf Wilde Platz was filled with watching Berliners, who wanted to see and
to hear the american President. And very soon the place was crowded and the side
streets leading to the square also. When Kennedy appeared with his translator
and the German political elite it was very noisy. All authorities had expected
about 500.000 people but about 1,500,000 visitors came.
To make it short, I did not notice much of the speech, as the camp beds filled
quickl with injured. Unfortunately, it was very hot this summer day 26
June 1963 and the people are fallen down the flies, if that was even possible.
Partially covered, they could not, simply because the place was missing. Dehydrated, unconscious persons, it was terrible.
In addition to Kennedy on the podium in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, the Townhall of Berlin, was also Lucius D. Clay, the "father of the airlift" and the savior of Berlin when Berlin was cut off in 1948 by the Russians and he waved smiled to thunderous applause. Berlin had to thank him a lot, most of their lives, maybe also mine. Clay was General at that time and he had arranged to supply the city by air, a unique masterpiece of logistics.
But back to Kennedy. Beside him stood the Lord Mayor of Berlin West, Willy Brandt and some other politicians. Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor of the Federal Republik of Germany had appeared the first time in Berlin since the Wall was built 2years ago. I bet that he would not have come if the American President came to Berlin, Adenauer would not have come! The applause was behave accordingly.
When Kennedy appeared, there was an applause and cheers on that place, as I had never seen or heard, because he was so popular. He came smiling to the microphone and began with the words:
"I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. "
In the words he mentioned Clay sounded a thunderous applause, and after translation by the interpreter went on Kennedy:
"Two thousand years ago the Proudest boast what" Civis Romanus sum. " Today, in the world of freedom, the Proudest boast is' Ich bin ein Berliner. "
Frenetic applause surged for minutes. Kennedy turned to smile at his interpreter.
"I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! There are many people in the world who really do not understand, or say they do not, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. "
Then all hell broke loose for minutes Kennedy could not continue his speech. Bus this sentence has been often misquoted in the past. Whenever this phrase is quoted, it is claimed, Kennedy had said, "I am a Berliner", but it was a comparison.
When the meeting was over, the official guests had retired to the Town Hall and the crowd proceeded slowly. Many ambulances and emergency vehicles came, to rescue the severe cases, to bring them to nearby hospitals.
That day I kept in my memory, also the assassination in Dallas on november 22, 1963, less than half a year later, when the American President died, just 46 years old.
In addition to Kennedy on the podium in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, the Townhall of Berlin, was also Lucius D. Clay, the "father of the airlift" and the savior of Berlin when Berlin was cut off in 1948 by the Russians and he waved smiled to thunderous applause. Berlin had to thank him a lot, most of their lives, maybe also mine. Clay was General at that time and he had arranged to supply the city by air, a unique masterpiece of logistics.
But back to Kennedy. Beside him stood the Lord Mayor of Berlin West, Willy Brandt and some other politicians. Konrad Adenauer, the chancellor of the Federal Republik of Germany had appeared the first time in Berlin since the Wall was built 2years ago. I bet that he would not have come if the American President came to Berlin, Adenauer would not have come! The applause was behave accordingly.
When Kennedy appeared, there was an applause and cheers on that place, as I had never seen or heard, because he was so popular. He came smiling to the microphone and began with the words:
"I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. "
In the words he mentioned Clay sounded a thunderous applause, and after translation by the interpreter went on Kennedy:
"Two thousand years ago the Proudest boast what" Civis Romanus sum. " Today, in the world of freedom, the Proudest boast is' Ich bin ein Berliner. "
Frenetic applause surged for minutes. Kennedy turned to smile at his interpreter.
"I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! There are many people in the world who really do not understand, or say they do not, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. "
Then all hell broke loose for minutes Kennedy could not continue his speech. Bus this sentence has been often misquoted in the past. Whenever this phrase is quoted, it is claimed, Kennedy had said, "I am a Berliner", but it was a comparison.
When the meeting was over, the official guests had retired to the Town Hall and the crowd proceeded slowly. Many ambulances and emergency vehicles came, to rescue the severe cases, to bring them to nearby hospitals.
That day I kept in my memory, also the assassination in Dallas on november 22, 1963, less than half a year later, when the American President died, just 46 years old.
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