Just Desserts

The streets are dirty. The walls a pristine white. Your stomach is in knots. Amazing really, how the intestines will twist and turn upon themselves when they have no food to bide them. Why do you find yourself here? Torn apart and thrown under the thumbs of four separate nations. Nothing but a pawn in a grand chess game of ever growing intensity. And there you sit, cold and hungry, leaning against an iron curtain. You cringe as the planes fly overhead. What now? What more could be done? The planes blot the sky. And yet, this time, the darkness it dotted with parachutes of white. You smile cautiously as you see the boxes descend, dancing across the sky. Food. Coal. Cars. 16 tons of vitality floats down on a daily basis. The airlift is here.



Decades after the war, as May rolls round Berliners rush out of their homes to celebrate the anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. To be sure, the airlift meant the vitality of hundreds of individuals. But look to the context. The Cold War raged as a brutal waltz between the Allies and the Soviets. Gaining its name from the distinct lack of physical, "hot", conflict, the Cold War was fought through strategic foreign policy. Ever since the the first world war, Germany had come to play a unique role in the global community. The Treaty of Versailles sought to cripple the German economy, to cripple the nation into impotence. The second war left the nation similarly devastated--gutted and divided into a multinational occupation. Each nation gripped voraciously onto its share. To be sure, Germany was more than just a nation. The airlift favored the West. It showed the compassion of the West in the face of the heartless tyranny of the Soviets. And yet, without the occupation, without the destruction of infrastructure, the airlift need not have occurred. Did the West engage in the airlift to save the Germans, or to defeat the Soviets? Are these intents mutually exclusive? Why does Germany honor the airlift, when its agents were also the ultimate source of its necessity? Perhaps, it is so as to avoid resentment. After all, resentment does not but hinder amiable foreign relations. But the Germans, of all nations, understand the importance of maintaining an awareness of the negative aspects of history. Certainly we cannot "resent" Hitler in the same way we can resent a body that still exists. But why should the policy not be maintained? Does the celebration of the airlift mask a relevant historical shadow? Or does it speak to the hope of peaceable foreign relations?