They were, quite frankly, done. In fact, there was a game that children in Berlin would “play” right after the war, called “Raid.” If they happened to see a soldier, they would make a big show of screaming and running away. However, a lot changed after the Berlin Airlift. But that’s a story for another day…
EDIT: I’m adding the Berlin Airlift because I want to. I apologiz for any inaccuracies because I haven’t read up on it in awhile, but fo those who want to learn more, there is a book by the title of “The Candy Bombers” that is a wonderful read. Now, to the history portion.
The Berlin Airlift was probably one of the most influential events in the 20th century, and also one of the most underrated. First of all, no one believed that it would work, and no one thought it would go on for as long as possible. No airlift operation had ever worked successfully, except for one during World War II that was managed by one William Tunner. However, no operation of the size required to supply Berlin was ever attempted.
To make a long story short, the long-lasting impact of the Airlift was an enormous boost in American popularity in post-war Germany, and especially in West Berlin. The German people saw that America was serious about staying in Germany, and was serious about backing up the German people. Increase in popularity = support, and better relationships. But in all seriousness, please read “The Candy Bombers.” It’s so much better at answering this question than I am.
EDIT: If anyone who lived through this or World War II sees this, I’d really like to talk to you more and hear about your experience.
Memories of WW2 for me, based in London, with various interludes of evacuation, first during the blitz, which I barely remember, but again later in the war when the doodlebugs and later still the V2 rockets made an appearance, to the Tonneypandy valley in Wales where I briefly went to school. Blackouts, shelters, bomb sites interrupting row houses, boring and unchanging food, porridge in the winter, beetawicks in the summer, powdered eggs, curtesy of the Americans, fear on the nights that bombing came down with a whistle that occasionally would last longer than others and consequently produce an even bigger explosion. Never ending nightly news where the names of German cities being bomed in clipped British accents would be announced, Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg and the like, a veritable geography lesson from the BBC. The strong sense of the awfulness of the other side, culminating in sitting in the cinema and my mother trying ineffectually to cover my eyes when the horrors of Belsen were revealed on the newsreel. The sense that the Red Army was invincible, the Americans were wonderful, the RAF and the British Army were so obviously winning the war as last few months and even the last couple of years of the war played out and the relief that brought that’s one’s Dad would in fact be coming back and that the German language would not be taking over.
In terms of physical comfort following the end of the war things really didn’t improve much, stringent food rationing, damaged and broken infrastructure and bomb sites everywhere. My family was evicted from our rented house in favor of the owner's son returning from military service, and we all had to move to a “rest center” a euphemism for homeless shelter, where we stayed for about five months while searching for accommodation in world turned upside down. Musical houses in London following the war where vacancies were nearly impossible to find. Freezing cold winters with the family surrounding the one fireplace that was in use, with the heat mostly going up the chimney. Fairly harsh conditions that lasted for a long time after the war had ended. Without doubt, europeans on the continent had it much worse, particularly, and unsurprisingly, the Germans themselves. Actually it could be said that effects of relative hardship and scarcity are by no means all bad, it does provide an education of sorts, which the hot house kids growing up today don’t experience and often get knocked down once they encounter the inevitable adversities of life. Well that turned into something of a moralizing rant, but that’s some small part of my memory of the period.