Tag: 091189bemorestoreberlinberlin wallfreedommeranthe fall
Berlin, November 9, 1989. The eyes of the world are all focused on these walls that collapse and behind every blow, of pick or gun, there is anger who for 30 years lived in a nightmare and the hope that finally something is changing. Imagine going to sleep in a world that is no longer the same in the morning; a wall, initially made only of palisades and barbed wire, which yesterday was not there, now breaks your city in two. On the other hand there are your loved ones, friends, maybe even the person you love, but they tell you that you can no longer reach them. And if, after disbelief, try to cross the barrier, you are arrested and you risk your life too. Like Lothar and Jörg, 13 and 10 years old, who are only children, but this does not stop the hands of border soldiers who kill them with gunshots. Or Ida, who at 59 years old throws herself out of the window of her house, praying to fall on the right side, to reach her family and instead finds death. Between 1949 and 1961, about 2.5 million Germans passed from East Germany, under Soviet rule
to West Germany controlled by France, the United Kingdom and the USA
It was to put an end to this exodus that East Germany built the wall, which became one of the most majestic symbols of oppression: 155km for almost 4 meters high, at least 133 people killed by border police, only in Berlin, 105.5 km of antitank ditch, 302 guard towers with armed snipers, 20 bunkers, checked day and night. But the strength of one, which became that of many, opened cracks and that wall that broke into two even many lives eventually collapsed under the weight of the courage to fight. This is why today, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, remembering also means honoring that people are still fighting to bring down those barriers, visible or not, that fuel hatred and divisions. Because "freedom", when you have insuperable borders that deprive you of it, is much more than a simple word.
