Prof. Dr. hc. Marcel Reich-Ranicki

"In May 1945, when in Warzhaw the news reached us that in the Soviet headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst the unconditional capitulation of all German forces was signed and the Second World War has ended some cheerful and happy colleagues told us to come to the yard with them. It is time, they said, for a salute into the sky. We unsecured our guns. Then my clear and boisterous colleagues fired shots in the air alltogether. A moment later I turned my gun to the blue and sunny, the merciless and cruel sky, and I shot. I was my first and last shot during the Second World War, the first and last in my life. Tosia stood next to me. Beeing silent we looked at each other. We knew well, that we felt the same. No, we felt no joy, but sorrow, no happiness but anger and rage. Once again I looked up and saw that a cloud has gathered, dark and grave. I felt: This cloud above us would never pass by, it would rest, for our whole life time.”

(Excerpt from the book "Mein Leben" [My life])