All of Berlin was crying, not just Americans

I was an Army brat. Dad was on Special Forces, and we moved to Berlin just months after the wall went up. On June 26, 1963, President Kennedy came to the city of Berlin, where he was cheered by millions of Germans when he said, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” As President Kennedy’s car drove down Clay Allee he got out to shake hands with some of the thousands of Americans there to see him, and I was able to see him in person.

On Nov. 22, around 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening we were getting ready for bed when the phone ring. Then mom started to cry. She told my dad the president had been shot. We had only German TV, and it was broadcasting all about what had happened in Texas. Dad turned on the Armed Forces radio just as they were telling us President Kennedy was dead.

We were able to watch the funeral on TV as we listened to the radio. But it was not just the Americans living in Berlin who were crying — it was everyone. The city of Berlin and its people loved and honored our president.

Karen Fahlgren Itasca