Escape from East Berlin

My friend Gina was born in Berlin and her family lived in East Berlin. Her father was always interested in politics and about a year before the Berlin Wall went up he started noticing that something was going on. He worked in an office building for a man who did some construction and paid attention to the jobs. At first he thought the trenches being built were for pipes, but then saw that stone and concrete were being used. So he knew a wall was going up and Gina's parents made the decision that they had to get out. They wanted their children to live in freedom. Also, it was difficult to be Catholic in a communist country that had outlawed religion. It took a year to save money and make the plans , especially with four small children. The only other people who knew of the plans were Gina's paternal grandfather, an aunt and uncle who lived in West Berlin and her mother's best friend. Gina's maternal grandmother had remarried and her husband was a member of the Communist Party. If he had known it would certainly have meant prison for Gina's father. On a Sunday in July 196o her grandfather took Gina and her sister to a movie in West Berlin. Gina and her sister were surprised and confused when their father told them to take a doll and their church hymnals.

After the movie they were supposed to meet and then go the aunt and uncle's house together. But, it was a Mickey Mouse movie and the girls kept asking to see it again. So they sat through the movie five times (!) as Gina's parents were waiting at the meeting place, terrified that something had happened to them. That perhaps the border police had captured them. When her grandfather realized what time it was they hurried to the meeting place. When her parents left their home her father had all their official papers hidden in a pouch behind his back. The border police randomly stopped passengers to question and search them. If Gina's father had been discovered with all these papers it would have been evident what he was doing and he would have been thrown in prison. Gina's father mailed the key to their apartment back to the East German police with a note saying they were not returning and he was sending the key so there was no need to break down the door. Gina is sure that her father's name was listed somewhere in the records of the East German Secret Police.

A little over a year later the wall went up.