Exhibit honors a legacy of friendship

The 1948 Berlin Airlift was a defining event of the early Cold War with the Soviet Union, one that helped establish Americans' reputation for compassion, fair treatment and ingenuity.

In this historic event, American, British and French airmen came together to airlift needed supplies to German civilians in Berlin caught in the blockade created by Soviet forces.

The airlift turned the German people from our recent enemies into our friends.

The airlift helped save more than 2 million men and women in Berlin but had special meaning for German children who received little parachutes with chocolate bars and gum from the "Candy Bombers."

The 60th anniversary of this historic event is honored in a traveling photo exhibit, "The Berlin Airlift - A Legacy of Friendship."

This exhibit is now on display at the Mercantile Library, in the lower level of the campus' main Thomas Jefferson Library.

The exhibit is sponsored by German Culture Center of the Center for International Studies at UM-St. Louis and the German Embassy.

"The Berlin Airlift-A Legacy of Friendship" photo exhibit is located to the left as you descend the stairs to the Mercantile Library.

The Mercantile Library, established in 1846, is the oldest library west of the Mississippi, a research library that is a founding cultural institution in St. Louis.

The exhibit's opening was kicked off with a talk by Andrei Cherny, author of "The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour," on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008 in the J.C. Penney Conference Center.

Cherny's book examines in depth one moving aspect of the Berlin Airlift, the delivery of candy and gum to Berlin children caught in the blockade.

The candy drops were started unofficially by an American pilot named Gail Halvorson.

Soon, other pilots were doing the same, dropping little handkerchief parachutes with candy bars along with food and fuel to sustain the Berliners.

A photo of pilot Gail Halvorson is among the approximately 70 images in the exhibit.

"The Berlin Airlift - A Legacy of Friendship" exhibit features photos of officers, pilots, planes, documents and German civilians involved with the Berlin Airlift.

The exhibit underlines the complex coordination needed to carry out this remarkable humanitarian mission.

The photos and explanatory documents and text are grouped by topics, to give a full picture of the effort.

Photos of German children, bombers lined up to take off and officers planning the effort are all represented.

One graph illustrates the precision needed for the airlift, with five levels of planes flying, with a plane taking off every three minutes and only 15 minutes between planes on a single level. The planes flew with only radio contact to guide them, without radar to guide them. It was a marvel of planning and flying. Inevitably, lives were lost in the airlift, with the loss of 31 Americans, 41 Britons and 6 Germans.

The exhibit offers moving images, fascinating details and a wonderful overview of a historic event. The one drawback of the exhibit is that the hallway in which it is placed, which is too narrow to allow one to step back and view the layout of the photos as a whole.

"The Berlin Airlift - A Legacy of Friendship" will be on display until October 12.