A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin (6 page)

President Roosevelt went on to appeal to all sides to stop bombing civilian populations, but the problem remained that as long as one side was willing to do it, the other belligerents felt compelled to do so as well.

Hitler promptly released a statement to the press: “The opinion expressed in President Roosevelt’s message that it is the law of humanity to refrain under all conditions of military activity from bombing non-military objectives is fully in accordance with my viewpoint and in accordance with what I have always represented. Therefore I agree unconditionally to the proposal that governments participating in current hostilities give a public declaration to this effect. For my part, I already announced publicly in my Reichstag speech on Friday that the German air forces have received orders to restrict their action to military objectives.”
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Hitler’s statement was contingent on the British not bombing civilians, and in the end, both sides continued to bomb cities.

These attacks were not even accurate in terms of being able to hit military targets within a city environment. For example, in September 1941, the British would analyze their past bombing attacks on Germany and find that only 20 percent of their planes bombed within five miles of their targets.

During the war, Berliners were free to wander around at night and go to normal activities like the theater, a restaurant, or a bar. The insides of such places were usually full of smoke, as the blackout meant that doors and windows could not be left open, and the air inside would soon grow stale and smoky. Restaurants in particular were often packed, as one did not need ration cards to get food there, just money. And this meant that if one had the money, there was food to be had without any hassle.

If an air raid siren went off, signaling that British bombers had been spotted, then everyone had to get off the streets and into the nearest air raid shelter. A reporter explained in August 1940 that in Berlin, “the streets were quickly cleared when the alarm sounded. Buses, street cars, subway trains were halted according to regulations.”
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Any German citizens caught on the street during the air raid had to pay a fifty-mark fine, which was then equivalent to twenty U.S. dollars. As the reporter was an American, he was allowed to continue on with a warning and the sense that if he wanted to risk his own life to get to work during an air raid, that was on him. Only once the all-clear signal was sounded could civilians go out again.

The main regulations for implementing the blackout in Germany were issued by the Nazi government on May 23, 1939.
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The blackout had not yet begun, as it was not needed until Germany was actually at war, but Hitler planned to attack Poland later that year and so needed the regulations in place beforehand. It would take time for the Reich to be ready to implement the blackout.

The Blackout Regulation, the informal name for the Eighth Regulation Implementing the Air Protection Act, spelled out how the blackout would work. This regulation was divided into two main parts. The first part dealt with general regulations that impacted private spaces, while the second part covered special regulations, which dealt primarily with public space issues such as how transportation and signage would work.

Section One explained that these regulations covered implementation of the blackout throughout the Reich.

Section Two proscribed that “responsibility for implementation of the blackout” fell on those who owned a property or at least exercised actual control over it. This was combined with the next section, which set forth that as a general rule the costs of implementing the blackout requirements fell on those responsible for implementing them. The only exceptions being if the person had a contract that said otherwise or if specific legislation addressed this issue for them. These two provisions combined meant that it would be up to a home or business owner to do what was needed to prevent light from spilling out into the night. And any associated expenses, such as purchasing heavy-duty blackout curtains for windows, would be that person’s responsibility.

Section Four, “Preparation of Blackout Measures,” required that people ready themselves to implement the blackout immediately, so that the government could announce at any time that they wanted it to begin right away. The real date for when the blackout would begin would be the invasion of Poland, but that date was a closely guarded secret, and so instead of including an actual date for when people would need to start implementing the blackout, the Blackout Regulation mandated that the populace ready themselves now. The announcement of when the blackout would actually begin would come later on.

Section Five, “Commencement and Duration of the Blackout,” explained that the police would announce the start and end of the blackout. Once it began, the default timing for it would be from dusk to dawn every day.

Section Six covered the very narrow circumstances under which relief from the mandatory blackout would be granted. This primarily applied to essential factories that needed light to operate and could set up a connection to the air raid warning system so they could go dark if bombers were actually coming.

Section Seven covered monitoring of the implementation of the Blackout Regulation. Those making sure that the people followed these rules were given the police powers needed to enforce them and to punish those who did not abide by them.

The second part, special regulations, contained twenty-one sections that covered everything needed to convert a modern industrial city, powered by electricity and filled with cars, buses, trams, and trains, into something that did not leak light into the night. There were a host of issues, big and small, that needed to be covered to enable this massive transformation and to try to accomplish it while still allowing the city to be productive at night and to minimize the loss of life that would result from the removal of proper outdoor lighting.

This section included rules on such subjects as the nature and implementation of blackout measures; the dimming of light sources; preventing the exit of light from buildings and vehicles; traffic lights; road sign lighting; the lighting of land vehicles such as cars and bicycles; road safety; and more.

Train platforms became dark as a result of Section Sixteen (traffic lights), Clause One: “The lighting of streets, roads, squares, railway and port facilities, waterways, and properties of all kinds, to the extent not otherwise provided below, are to be shut down.”
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Road safety was a major issue, and Section Twenty-Eight prescribed that weatherproof white paint, highly visible in the dark, be applied to the curbs of major traffic points such as crosswalks, bus stops, and intersections. This paint was also to be applied about a meter up on any dangers near the road, such as fences, trees, bends, houses, and more. Otherwise, cars might veer off the road and crash into these obstacles.

The third part consisted of a single section, numbered twenty-nine, which covered the authorization needed to amend the second part of the regulation. It granted this power to the reich minister of aviation and commander of the air force, Hermann Göring, although any changes to rules about traffic lighting needed to be approved by the minister of the interior and the minister of transport.

The Reich held elaborate practice runs for the blackout before starting World War II. In July 1939, Berlin prepared for Germany’s upcoming attack on Poland by blacking out the whole city. The population of this city of four million people all played some role in this exercise, from the civilians who responded to the air raid sirens by quickly entering the closest air raid shelters to the first responders who attended to those who acted as if they were injured or dying.

Planes flew overhead and dropped fake bombs while the city’s defenders tried to shoot them up with fake antiaircraft fire. As the Associated Press reported, “The raiders theoretically shattered hundreds of buildings, tore up streets, overturned street cars, and caused casualties among civilians. . . . Buildings poured forth specially manufactured smoke while red flares added to the simulation of buildings set afire by bombs. Detonations like exploding bombs could be heard.”
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On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland, and the blackout began. Strangely, that same night, the air alarm went off, even though no Polish bombers had come to attack and a practice air raid had not been announced. In December, a foreign correspondent wrote, “When evening falls, Berlin becomes literally a ‘city of dreadful night.’ This blackout must be lived to be understood. It is almost total. Trams and buses still run, but virtually dark. The few automobiles that circulate have their headlights hooded save for a small slit, which emits only a faint ray. You pick your way warily through inky-black streets, sensing rather than seeing the passers-by.”
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German propaganda posters emphasized this element of threat and the need for diligently following the rules and regulations related to the blackout. One particularly memorable poster featured a malevolent skeleton riding on top of a plane painted with a Royal Air Force roundel while hurling down a black ball on a German city. At the bottom left of the poster, we see how the bomber found a target—a person stands in an open doorway leaking light out into the street. The same building has windows that are lit up as they lack blackout curtains. Scrawled across the poster are the words “The Enemy Sees Your Light! Blackout!”
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Another German blackout propaganda poster also featured a skeleton in the sky. In this one a plane flew on a clear starry night. The skeleton is some kind of supernatural force, death incarnate, that spits out a bomb onto a building with a lit window and no blackout curtain. The text reads, “Light. Your Death!”
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The Nazis did not simply provide propaganda and rules—they of course also enforced the blackout using the tools of their totalitarian state. In addition to the usual authorities, such as police, there were those specifically responsible for checking that the blackout conditions were being respected, such as local air raid wardens.

Herbert Vogt, who lived in Berlin during this period, later wrote about how Germany enforced the blackout conditions: “In shops, offices, and private homes, the windows had to be covered with black curtains so that not a ray of light showed from the outside. Many people constructed rigid contraptions to bolt on to the window frame, which considerably simplified the nightly ritual of ‘putting up the blackout.’ Those who were careless or late risked the humiliating experience of [an air raid] warden’s stentorian voice roaring for the whole street to hear the word that quickly became a catch phrase: ‘Put that light out.’ In case there was no response, any pedestrian was allowed to throw a stone in the window, or many times a policeman would pull out his pistol and shoot the light out. Repeat offenders had to pay a fine or, in some cases, were arrested.”
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Local air raid wardens would walk around at night, and if they spotted any light emerging from a building, they would post a warning to notify the resident to fix this problem and to embarrass him as part of this process. One such posting said in big, bold letters, “This house is badly darkened!”
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It went on to explain that this endangered not only those living here, but also their neighbors. Once the problem was fixed, the notice could be removed.

Not everyone used blackout curtains. Many people in Berlin covered their windows with paper so that no light could escape at night, even though that meant they didn’t get any light coming through their windows during the day either. For them, this was easier and cheaper than installing special curtains that had to be drawn every evening.

Within days of the start of the blackout, the Nazis passed a law dictating strict punishments for those who took advantage of the darkened conditions to commit crimes. On September 5, 1939, the Third Reich issued a “Decree Against Public Enemies,” the name of which literally translated would have been “Regulation Against Folk Pests” (
Volksschädlingsverordnung
).

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s
Holocaust Encyclopedia
explains, “Under the terms of the law, a crime against person or property, or against the community or public security, could carry a death sentence if the accused was charged with exploiting the special conditions of war—such as blackouts or a lack of police supervision—to carry it out. . . . It is worth noting that
Volksschädlinge
, the key term in the law’s title, is translated as ‘folk pests’ or ‘vermin.’ As such, the law equates those exploiting the special conditions of war to carry out crimes with the type of agricultural pests that are destructive and generally outside the sphere of moral responsibility. Just as a gardener attacks the bugs and vermin that threaten his plants, so too, the Nazis believed, the national community had to eliminate those who compromised the health and well-being of the body politic.”
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On October 24, 1939, a reporter for
Life
magazine wrote in a letter, “The courts are clamping down on petty crimes committed in the dark and some of the sentences are rather astounding when one considers that the penalty for murdering one’s wife may be two years in the pen. A law establishing the death penalty for persons convicted of taking advantage of the blackouts to snatch pocketbooks or commit hold-ups has been passed. A Hanover court has just sentenced three boys 17, 18 and 21 years of age, for whacking a woman shop clerk on the head and robbing her of 150 marks she was taking to the bank. All three are to have their heads chopped off because the law makes no distinction for youth. Had they robbed her by daylight, the sentence would have been a few months in prison.”
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