When you move from one place to another in Berlin it takes just about
three days to get all the food cards in order again. Here is what you
would have to do if you move from one suburb of Berlin to another, say
from Charlottenburg to Wilmersdorf. This is for all foreigners--even
neutrals.
First you go to the _Portier_ or janitor of the building where you
live in Charlottenburg, and he gives you three green slips which
you fill out. These slips tell your name, age, occupation, religion,
nationality, where you were born and where you last lived. After they
are filled out the _Portier_ signs them. The _Portier_ keeps one slip,
sends one to the magistrate of Charlottenburg and gives you the third.
With this green slip you go to the Charlottenburg police. In the first
room a policeman looks up your record which you are surprised to find
filed in a little box, and if your record is all right he sends you
into the next room where the chief presides. The chief of each police
station has charge of all the foreigners, and at the little branch
police station on Mommsenstrasse where I reported in June the chief
told me he had over five hundred foreigners in his district.
You present your green slip, which the man outside has stamped, and
your passport to the chief, and after more filing and stamping both on
the slip and on your pass, you are ready to move. As soon as you get to
Wilmersdorf the new _Portier_ gives you three white slips to fill out.
They are very similar to the green ones and ask the same questions. The
_Portier_ signs these, and he keeps one, sends one to the magistrate
of Wilmersdorf, and with the third white slip, your green slip and your
pass, you go to the police in Wilmersdorf. Here they file and stamp and
then give you back your pass and the white slip which has been stamped
for the bread commission.
It is not necessary to go to the bread commission in Charlottenburg,
but you must take all your food cards and your white slip with you
to the bread commission in Wilmersdorf. Here they look over all your
cards very carefully to make sure you are not trying to cheat them and
then they give you an entirely new lot of cards cutting them off up to
date so you can't get more than your share of food. So far moving has
been easy, but the worst part of the business is to come, and that is
getting registered to buy meat, eggs, butter, sugar and potatoes at
certain stores. Lately this registering has been somewhat simplified,
and you can get registered at the bread commission for all the articles
except meat, but when the registering was first introduced each person
had to go to the _Rathaus_ or city hall himself and get registered for
each article. This meant that one had to stand at least an hour--for
there were always such crowds--at five different rooms waiting to have
your sugar, meat, butter, potato and egg cards stamped so that you
would be allowed to buy these articles, and after you were registered
you could buy them only in a certain store, but if you weren't
registered you couldn't buy these articles at all. This registering
scheme was a very good one, for since it has been introduced there
has been no standing for any of these articles, and when the people go
for their butter or eggs they find it waiting for them, and the food
controllers give each shopkeeper just as much of each of these articles
as he can show he has customers registered to buy that article in his
store. This has also done away with a lot of selling _Ohne Karte_, or
without a card, for the shopkeeper does not dare to sell without cards,
for then he would not have enough for his registered customers and then
the police would get after him.
Just to show you what a trouble this registering is I will tell you of
the time I had getting registered to buy an egg. I got the egg card
easily enough. I had lived at a boarding-house before and I did not
even know that you had to be registered for eggs. I took my egg card
and went to Herr Blumfeld, an egg-dealer near by, and told him I wanted
to buy the egg due on my card. That week we got only one egg apiece.
Herr Blumfeld said that he would gladly sell me the egg, but first I
would have to go to the magistrate of Charlottenburg and get registered
to buy from him, but that after I got registered I could always buy
eggs from him.
That didn't sound so hard, so I took the egg card and went to the
court-house, which was about six stations on the underground. The
court-house was black with people madly rushing to and fro with cards
in their hands, red cards, green cards, yellow cards and blue cards.
There were soldiers, prosperous looking business men, maids, children,
well-dressed women, and women with shawls on their heads. Guides were
stationed everywhere, but the people did not seem to be able to find
the room they wanted.
I asked a guide where the egg room was, and he pointed it out to me,
"_Eierzimmer 91_." I had to go up five flights of stairs, for all the
registering rooms were on the top floors. About seventy-five people
were ahead of me waiting to be registered to buy eggs. It was about
an hour before my turn came, and then I presented my card and said, "I
would like to buy eggs from Herr Blumfeld on Pestalozzistrasse."
"Where is your _Ausweiskarte_?" the lady at the desk asked. I told her
I had none and had never heard of one.
"I can't register you for eggs without an _Ausweiskarte_. So you will
have to go home to your _Portier_ and get one."
I took the underground and hurried home. The _Portier_ said that he
had no _Ausweis_, or permit cards, and that I would have to go to the
bread commission and get it. After waiting at the bread commission in
line for an hour, I succeeded in getting an _Ausweis_ card, and then
I rushed back to the magistrate. This time I had to wait only half an
hour, and at last I came to the desk and was registered to buy an egg
from Mr. Blumfeld of Pestalozzistrasse.
I had spent the whole day trying to get that egg, and I was happy in
the thought that my efforts were not in vain. As I rode back on the
underground I was trying to decide, "Would I eat my egg for breakfast
or for dinner? Would I have it boiled or fried?" and then the awful
thought came to me, "What if the egg was bad?" That would be too cruel!
It was just seventeen and a half minutes to eight when I got back
to the egg shop of Herr Blumfeld. He was sweeping. I waved my card
triumphantly, "I have it," I cried. He leaned his broom against
the counter and pointed to a sign hanging over the stove, "_Eier
ausverkauft_" (Eggs sold out). I looked at it, then staggered, and then
fainted dead away in the greasy arms of the astonished Herr Blumfeld,
_Eier-Grosshändler_.