Diary passage:

In a diary I wrote down sketches of how I experienced the last months of the war. Writing worked as an outlet for the unbearable pressure of experiencing.

„….In the night of 26th February 1945 I had a dream of being buried. Everything in me fought against this, I was still so young and wanted to live! –
As I wrote these words, the thought came to me of the possibility of reincarnation. Soon I came to the conclusion, that this was a very acceptable possibility for me, albeit as a different figure with another name and with other parents . –“

On the same day, a few hours later, the heaviest bomb attack came that we have experienced. Seven blockbusters howled their way into our appartment building. – By a hair‘s breadth the horror passed me by.“ -

The worst part, however, was the experience of the final phase of the war with the battle in the streets of Berlin. – The thunder of the cannons was deafening, the screeching of the „Stalin organ“ and the sound of bursting grenades. The uncertainty was torturing, what the next hours would bring, whether one would survive, and for hours I experienced as a part of the soul of my people all the misery and fear of the inhabitants of this city and country, without hope for a next day or any opening to the future, -

only he will be able to imagine this, who has experienced it himself.