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Before the Wall: Berlin Days, 1946-1948
A British intelligence officer in Allied-occupied Berlin describes the four-way battle for control of the hearts and minds of the city's people in the years immediately following World War II
304 pages, Hardcover
First published September 30, 1990
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September 22, 2020
This is a memoir that contains the essence of reconciliation after war, not just with the enemy but also with oneself; it is a story of the aftermath of the Second World War, and equally important, it's a story about race. It was quite interesting to note the different layers among Europeans(and Americans) and how they regard and treat one another. In Africa, we are brought to think there is only one white man, and if they are many, they are all just the same. Apparently, they are different, and the difference is one of the major motifs that the author - Clare tries to explore, albeit the obvious prejudice for the British(he was born Jew but designed to be British, and that became his mission in life):
Now, one does not have to be born in Britain, or with a cricket bat in one's cradle, to know what fairness means, yet there is something unique in its British concept, which by mixing it with more than a smidgen of tolerance and a shot or two of apathy turns a noble ideal into practicable human quality.
And still on the British;
"You know, there's something very special about the British soul. If you mine deep into it, underneath the usual layers of human frailty and stupidity, then you strike a richer lode of fairness and humanity than in any nation,.."
He also had some good words for the French but not effusive as such. Russians, on the other hand, are on the far end of the spectrum;
The Russians were cleverer. Cruelty for them was not an end in itself nor brutality its own purpose - and, therefore purposeless. Torture, though they used it, did not give them master-race orgasms. It was a tool to achieve an end.
Needless to mention the Germans who killed his parents - your thoughts are as good as mine.
Clare is a brilliant person and a brilliant writer who was brave enough to soak these pages with his tears as he went down the memory lane and paint a near-perfect portrait of Nazism with a poetic pose, not of soldier circumstances made him be, but that of a journalist he always craved to be. No wonder he remarked: Destiny? Yes, if one accepts, as I do, that our destinies are not merely the whims of the gods but are formed - consciously or unconsciously - by what formed us, by what we are.
Now, one does not have to be born in Britain, or with a cricket bat in one's cradle, to know what fairness means, yet there is something unique in its British concept, which by mixing it with more than a smidgen of tolerance and a shot or two of apathy turns a noble ideal into practicable human quality.
And still on the British;
"You know, there's something very special about the British soul. If you mine deep into it, underneath the usual layers of human frailty and stupidity, then you strike a richer lode of fairness and humanity than in any nation,.."
He also had some good words for the French but not effusive as such. Russians, on the other hand, are on the far end of the spectrum;
The Russians were cleverer. Cruelty for them was not an end in itself nor brutality its own purpose - and, therefore purposeless. Torture, though they used it, did not give them master-race orgasms. It was a tool to achieve an end.
Needless to mention the Germans who killed his parents - your thoughts are as good as mine.
Clare is a brilliant person and a brilliant writer who was brave enough to soak these pages with his tears as he went down the memory lane and paint a near-perfect portrait of Nazism with a poetic pose, not of soldier circumstances made him be, but that of a journalist he always craved to be. No wonder he remarked: Destiny? Yes, if one accepts, as I do, that our destinies are not merely the whims of the gods but are formed - consciously or unconsciously - by what formed us, by what we are.
Displaying 1 of 1 review