Interesting news has been reported in Berlin.
It seems that captured papers from the secret police of the defunct East German government have revealed that the runways of the Schoenefeld airport in East Berlin may sit atop thousands of bombs and other ordnance of Nazi stores from WWII.
Surprisingly, the reports also claim that several Nazi fighter planes fully loaded with bombs and fuel are buried in secret bunkers under the airport awaiting future use. It seems that the former communists of the East German government spirited away all this captured Nazi ordnance and aircraft for their own possible use, buried them in old Nazi bunkers under the city and then the fact that this stash was created was forgotten with time.
As it turns out the sandy soil of East Berlin made bunker making easy for the Hitler government during WWII and such bunkers are being discovered on a regular basis in the newly westernized part of Germany. It also turns out that these bunkers have been forgotten for the most part as millions of people roam about living their lives above the detritus of forgotten war secrets. There are even museums and tourist attractions being created out of these discoveries in East Berlin.
Capitalism is a wonderful thing. Here we have a secretive former government, Hitler’s Germany, creating deep bunkers with secret places not known to the general public. Then we have a second secretive government, the Soviets, taking over those bunkers and filling them with unknown quantities of ordnance and war material.
All this happened over 5 decades ago. Files were kept, people knew but the fact that these weapons were so well hidden for so long might astonish you. Until you realize that the governments that created these bunkers and caches of weapons were secretive, tyrannical governments that governed their people by fear and torture.
Much like Saddam Hussein, really. Now let us similarly realize that Saddam had 12 years to also hide his own weapons and war material and we should not be so surprised that we have yet to find his stashes. Add to this the fact that several of the nations around him were sympathetic to his cause and certainly would love to have taken his weapons for themselves. It took 5 decades to find these Nazi/Soviet stashes. We have had only several months to find Saddam’s!
Fully armed Nazi bomber planes 'buried below East Berlin airport' from the Scotsman.com
(This article was heard as a counter point commentary on WYSO Public Radio, Yellow Springs, Ohio)
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