From the Stars and Stripes archives
Huge parade caps Berlin Red youth rally
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BERLIN — One of the biggest parades ever held under the Red flag of communism moved through the banner-draped streets of the Soviet Sector here today as thousands of uniformed youths from more then 70 nations fell into line.
Communists contended that at least 1,000,000 persons were marching in the :parade of' the so-called "peace fighters."
The parade opened after a barrage of fireworks that left the sky a smoky red. The Communist leaders pulled all their newest propaganda stunts as the march got under way.
Flags burst over the crowd. Thousands of doves were released from cages and circled overhead with a Soviet air force plane flying among them.
The effect was ruined shortly after the parade got started, when thousands of anti-Communist pamphlets were fired into the Soviet Sector from West Berlin. East police, standing heavy guard, prevented spectators from picking them up.
Eight and 9-year-old boys, their faces scarlet, blew trumpets that led the march. Girls in pigtails, obviously worn out from waiting more than three hours for the parade to begin, marched behind them.
The girls carried big signs that weighed them down.
In the reviewing stand sat the leaders of the Soviet Zone government: Premier Otto Grotewohl, President Wilhelm Pieck, and Gen Vassily I. Chuikov, chief of the Soviet Control Commission for Germany. They waved flowers at the passing throng.
The marchers lacked the spirit which characterized the opening day of the "World Youth Festival" last Sunday.
A 20-foot high portrait of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, at the head of the parade, brought little response from today's crowd.
West Berlin's 12,800 police stood by on alert, but no incidents were reported at the border.
Most of the spectators were black-uniformed or brown-shirted members of the East German police, standing shoulder to shoulder along both sides of the streets, keeping other spectators back.
Police Cordon
Around the parade field at Marx-Engels Platz — a few hundred yards awry from the sector border — the brown-shirted police units formed a heavy cordon.
The Soviet Sector was sealed off from the rest of the city. Streets were barricaded, subway and elevated trains were halted, and no vehicles of any kind could enter.
In spite of threats by their Communist leaders, 12,000 youths ignored the parade and cracked the Iron Curtain for a look at the free side. Many more thousands were expected this afternoon.
Some of the signs carried said: "From Paris to Berlin, from Hamburg to Rome, Ami go home." "Death to Anglo-American war criminals."
One group of East German youths carried a poster showing President Truman with a gallows and noose over his head.
About 22,000 foreign delegates were reported to be among the marchers.
West Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter predicted last night in a radio address that the "World Youth Festival" will be "a great success for the free world." lie pointed out that the East gathering has permitted many Communist youths to view the "freedom of the West."
