Turning the pages back... November 11, 1961 (11/12/06)

Turning the pages back...

November 11, 1961

It was 45 years ago that Walter Dushnyck, writing for The Weekly, reported on the rise of the Berlin Wall, the symbolic "Iron Curtain" that divided Germany and demarcated the Communist world from the free world.

On August 13-23 the so-called People's Police (Volks polizei or Vopos) along with the People's Army sealed off the border of West Berlin with concrete barriers and barbed-wire fences. A few days later, East German workers completed the wall with concrete and stone. In this environment of uncertainty and danger, the landscape was scarred with divided railways, subways, canals, churches, cemeteries and private homes - entire families were divided.

During the construction of the wall, the attempts of many to escape were cut short by bullets from the Vopos. Wreaths and crosses commemorated their efforts for freedom. Other reported accounts of underground escape came from Marienfelde, a transit camp for East German refugees where they were processed and flown out to West Germany. Over 25 men and women escaped to West Berlin in the last week of October of that year from Marienfelde. Additionally, the day prior to Dr. Dushnyck's arrival, three men escaped to the American sector.

While walking alongside the western side of the wall, an American Military Policeman observed Dr. Dushnyck's Svoboda press pass (The Weekly was then published as a supplement to Svoboda) and said, "Sir, be careful and don't come too close the Vopos as they are very trigger-happy lately."

Other scenes on Brandenburg Avenue included British anti-tank guns at Brandenburg Gate. Further down the road was a "Soviet War Memorial" surrounded by Soviet guards and a barbed-wire fence. A Russian-language inscription that smacked of propaganda on the memorial read, "This monument was erected in honor of Soviet heroes who died in the struggle against German fascist aggressors and for freedom and independence of the Soviet Union."

In the evenings, West Berliners congregated near the wall searching for signs from friends and relatives from across the wall. However, no signs of life could be found. East German police evacuated over 4,500 residents from houses near the wall. These deserted houses had broken windows, doors and lights. No restaurants, taverns or stores were visible so as not to remind the people of the once proud German capital. All of the stores in the east were owned by the state, and goods were scarce or unavailable.

The West Berliners expressed their bitterness about the wall and blamed the Western powers, including the U.S., Britain and France, for allowing the city to be divided with Moscow. However, the popularity of the American forces remained the highest among occupying forces in West Berlin.

Providing a Ukrainian perspective on the impact of the wall, Bohdan Osadchuk, a Ukrainian journalist and contributor to Svoboda, and Irene Osadchuk-Kushkevych, a physician, said there was a small group of Ukrainian refugees in Berlin, but many had scattered or intermarried with Germans and seldom congregated.

A ray of hope came on November 2 when Moscow announced the ejection of Stalin's remains from Lenin's mausoleum, stripping Stalin of his saintly status. This news put the Stalinist Walter Ulbricht, general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, in jeopardy. Some believed that after what happened in Moscow, Mr. Ulbricht would fall out of favor with Moscow as well, and a less totalitarian leader would be brought in. However, the East Germans would have to wait another 10 years for this to happen.

Source: "At the 'Wall of Shame' in West Berlin," by Walter Dushnyck, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 11, 1961.

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