Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-12-01 / 12. szám
2 FRATERNITY since the tragic events of one week ago, but each time I could conveniently find an excuse not to. Now the time has come, I suppose, for me to write this first letter since the death of our President. I don’t want to sound melodramatic, nor do 1 want to make you feel uncomfortable by forcing you to read even more words about his death. For some reason I have a compunction to say something. It would hardly be right not to say something. But •what can a person say? There have been billions of words written in the past week. There will be billions more. Every word in the dictionary I’m sure must have been used. And still the feeling that zee all had when this terrible thing happened cannot be described. It gives one a sense of utter frustration and points up in a very real way that we are indeed incapable and a rather helplessly inarticulate race of beings. “Horrible, shameful, terrible, cozcardly, dastardly, foul!’’ All these words and many more have been used. And yet none, either alone or in combinations of two, three or a dozen can aptly describe the deed or the effect that it had upon all human Americans and friends of America. Here in Berlin the reaction was nothing short of terrifyingly magnificent. The people of Berlin rose to the occasion like nothing you could imagine. Within minutes after the news was flashed, there was organized a demonstration of condolence by some 12,000 university students. By the next morning they were lined up in front of the American Mission Building six deep, in a line four blocks long. The line lasted three days. On Sunday 32,000 people signed the condolence book which was placed in the lobby. A special meeting was held, and on Monday evening, exactly when the President’s funeral was being held (6 P.M. Berlin time), 260,000 people gathered in front of the City Hall, and the plaza (Platz) in front of the City Hall — where he had spoken the words “Ich bin Ein Berliner” and thus endeared himself to the hearts of the German people — was renamed “John F. Kennedy Platz”. Old ladies who don’t speak a word of English would stop us, who were obviously Americans, on the street, with tears in their eyes and woidd express their sympathy. Strong men wept openly. Entire classes of school children wore black armbands and came as a group to stand in line for three hours waiting to sign the condolence book. There was another scroll at the City Hall also, which was being signed simultaneously.
