By Elinor Florence: My mother-in-law Gerda Drews was a teenager living in Berlin during World War Two. She witnessed the ferocious battle of Berlin, and her family’s tragic experiences after her city fell to the Soviet Army.

Note from Elinor: My husband was born in Berlin after the war and emigrated to Canada as a young man. His father Kurt Drews flew with the Luftwaffe, and his mother Gerda Kernchen lived through the bombing of Berlin and its occupation by Russia in 1945. Gerda was eleven years old when the war began. She is still living in Berlin. I interviewed her on tape. She doesn’t speak English, so the recording was translated by my husband.