My grandpa was wounded in Seelow, then taken to Lazaret in Müncheberg.
End of April 1945 he received leave and should assign at new Service.
Which he didn't instead walked to Berlin by Foot.
Throwing away the new postings, he made his way to his parents flat
in Charlottenburg, right in time when Berlin was under Siege.
I know he went there via Straussberg and Pankow
through thin opened corridors. He slept 1 day at his Aunt in Pankow and continued his way
to Charlottenburg.
There where either ruins or in the intact houses 2 types of flats,
completely housed/closed flats or robbed out/opened.
At the beginning of WW2 Closed flats where of the inhabitants
flew outside Berlin and the remaining Neighbours quickly opened and emptied these
(robbery,vandalizing) in the late war era. My grandpa caught the neighbours in act doing so
at my great grandparents flat, who lived near Borgsdorf in their Gardenresidence.
He mocked away the neighbours and recollected every piece from the street, floor building
and out of the hands of the neighbours he could get. All familly values, Meißner Porcelaine,
was stolen. That was high life in wartime Berlin.
Apart from the battledamage/bombing etc., my grandpa told me, his Berlin was a trash dump,
litter everywhere. Only small areas kept buisilly clean, like the neighbourhouse at Kaminerstr.
where a 90 year old chap cleaned the yard in daily manner. The rest, nobody seemed to care,
maybe they ate the broomsticks or fired it at each other while stealing stuff...