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Diary from Berlin 24-5





The bars in the brain

Soteria FORNARO


This is a watercolor by Rainer Küchenmeister, a professor of painting 'Academy of Arts in Karlsruhe and Paris, died May 6 at the age of 83. Rainer Berlin was born in working-class district of Berlin, deep in the east. The father was guillotined by Hitler on August 13, 1945. The last memory of him was that Heiner was a caress, while men of the Gestapo were waiting at the door, a caress "as one that only a father does to a child," and a whisper: 'See you, kid'. The accusation was no escape: treason to the State and the Führer.

Rainer was 16 years, was also arrested on the same charge, and locked up in prison Alexander-Platz, on the fourth floor. Just above his cell, there was a girl of twenty-one years, is a potter, Bontjes Cato van Beek, who is also a 'traitor' of Hitler: he had fed the French prisoners. Cato, the bars of his cell, singing tunes that everyone rejoiced. 'The thoughts are free' - singing. Rainer sent cards hanging by a thread. They exchanged messages in code with his knuckles knocking on the heavy walls. He loved so, how to love life. Cato was beheaded August 5, 1943.

Rainer remained eighteen months in that cell to Alexanderplatz, then was taken to a concentration camp for boys in Moringen: and there, in 1945, also had to suffer the Soviet prison. In recent years, talked a lot in memory of his childhood sweetheart guillotined, his father, and of that group of resistance that the Nazis called disparagingly 'Red Orchestra', 'red' because the communists, and 'pianists' fingers because the signals sent radio to the Russians, 'spies' in the service of Moscow. Things were not so. They were brave men, even boys, they did not keep in mind se stessi per lottare senza mezzi contro il mostro, Adolf Hitler. Queste vite furono dopo dimenticate, lo sono in parte adesso, quando non addirittura diffamate.

Rainer Küchenmeister non poteva dimenticare.

Aveva promesso a Cato, in uno dei bigliettini che percorrevano le mura della prigione attaccati a fili sottili, che sarebbe divenuto un pittore. Mantenne la promessa. Le sue figure su tela non hanno occhi. Nelle sue sculture al posto della testa vi sono grovigli informi, insetti di metallo, plastica, pelle che brulicano su tronchi tagliati. Questo il ricordo di quel che la prigione ed il nazismo gli aveva fatto: nella testa, solo orribili astrazioni, ricordi da cui guardarsi.

A cosa ha pensato, Rainer Küchenmeister nei suoi ultimi momenti? Al suo amore di cella, e alla sua immensa nostalgia della vita, forse. Alla madre, morta a 38 anni in un bombardamento. Al padre, ghigliottinato da Hitler. Forse. Forse ad un nuovo viaggio. Forse alla luce, dopo tanto buio. A noi resta il dovere di ricordare e ricordarlo.

A noi resta il coraggio di guardare questo suo acquarello, e le sbarre nel cervello.

Per chi legge il tedesco qualche notizia in più in: http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/171510.im-kopf-das-gitter-vom-alex.html. Dell’ ‘Orchestra rossa’, delle sue donne, ho già parlato altrove (http://www.viadelvento.it/catalogo/scheda.asp?IDlibro=159), ma non basta.