I Told You Wrong

The more I thought about it, I thought that Uncle Ken' account of the fall of Berlin was closer to the truth than mine, so I looked up on Wiki, and here's what I found: 

"No plans were made by the Western Allies to seize the city by a ground operation.^[29] The Supreme Commander [Western] Allied Expeditionary Force, General Eisenhower lost interest in the race to Berlin and saw no further need to suffer casualties by attacking a city that would be in the Soviet sphere of influence after the war,^[30] envisioning excessive friendly fire if both armies attempted to occupy the city at once.^[31] The major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the bombing of Berlin during 1945.^[32] During 1945 the United States Army Air Forces launched very large daytime raids on Berlin and for 36 nights in succession, scores of RAF Mosquitos bombed the German capital, ending on the night of 20/21 April 1945 just before the Soviets entered the city.^[33]" - From Wikipedia

The division of Berlin into the four sectors must have occurred later, which would be consistent with what Margie told me.  She was about 14 at the time, but her mother dressed her in children's clothing to make her look younger because one of the Russians warned her about the Mongolians that were coming after them.  Margie carried a stiletto knife concealed under that clothing, in case the Mongolians were partial to really young girls.  There was a big pile of potatoes that had been dumped down the coal chute into the basement of Margie's apartment building. One day, when Margie went down there to collect her family's daily ration, she was accosted by a drunken Mongolian who tried to force himself upon her.  Margie stabbed him in the neck with her knife, and he made a gurgling sound as he died.  Fearing retribution, Margie buried the body under the potatoes and didn't tell anybody about it.  By the time it was discovered, the body had decomposed to the point that it was hard to tell what had killed him.  The official report said that he had probably passed out drunk and gotten buried under the potatoes when they had been dumped down the chute.

Margie later married an American soldier, went back to the States with him, subsequently got divorced, and returned to Berlin with her three children.  The two boys and a girl considered themselves to be Americans and vowed to return to the States when they grew up.  When they began to make plans to do so, they found that their citizenship was in question.  They were Germans under U.S. law because their mother was German, but they were Americans under German law because their father was American.  The two boys ultimately settled it by joining the U.S. Army, which entitled them to apply for citizenship.  The girl settled it by marrying an American soldier and returning to the States with him when his enlistment expired.  They settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan and came up to visit me a few times.