SWC Bonfire
08-09-2005, 01:42 PM
More than 1,100 died fleeing East Germany:
report Tue Aug 9,11:19 AM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - More than 1,100 people died trying to escape the former East Germany, according to new research by a prominent victims group presented ahead of the 44th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall.
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The "August 13 Working Group", named for the day the Communist state closed the border in 1961 to halt a mass exodus to the West, unveiled fresh findings about those shot by border guards or otherwise killed trying to flee.
The organization's director, Alexandra Hildebrandt, said 70 previously unrecorded deaths had been uncovered in the past year, bringing the new total to 1,135.
Nearly 16 years after the Berlin Wall tumbled, German historians say the true number of border victims may never be known.
Berlin prosecutors put the official total at 270 while the official Central Investigating Group for Government and Unification Crime cites 421 cases in which armed East German border guards are believed to have killed people trying to breach the wall.
The figure cited by the Working Group, which is based next to the former US-controlled Checkpoint Charlie border crossing at a Berlin Wall museum, includes deaths between the end of World War II in 1945 when the Soviets claimed control of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
The organization includes on its list East German border guards who were shot by people attempting to escape, killed by fellow soldiers, or who had committed suicide in response to orders to shoot their compatriots.
Hildebrandt said the organization would continue to press on with its research.
"There are still a lot of blanks in the record of East German history," she told reporters.
From the 1950s until the Wall's construction, some 2.5 million people had quit communist East Germany out of a population of some 19 million in 1947, prompting the country to take the extraordinary measure of sealing the border.
The organization's press conference falls each year ahead of the anniversary of the construction of the Wall, when East Germans woke up to find themselves prisoners of their own country.
In July, a Berlin Wall victims' memorial next to Checkpoint Charlie featuring two mock slabs of the barrier and more than 1,000 giant wooden crosses was forcibly dismantled amid protests.
Hildebrandt's museum lost a court battle to prevent the bank that owns the site from clearing it.
I have no problem with people expressing their rights and protesting. In fact, it is part of a functioning democracy. But if you ever think that you aren't free... think about these people who died trying to become someone who got a handout of 100 West German marks and a pat on the back.
report Tue Aug 9,11:19 AM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - More than 1,100 people died trying to escape the former East Germany, according to new research by a prominent victims group presented ahead of the 44th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall.
ADVERTISEMENT
The "August 13 Working Group", named for the day the Communist state closed the border in 1961 to halt a mass exodus to the West, unveiled fresh findings about those shot by border guards or otherwise killed trying to flee.
The organization's director, Alexandra Hildebrandt, said 70 previously unrecorded deaths had been uncovered in the past year, bringing the new total to 1,135.
Nearly 16 years after the Berlin Wall tumbled, German historians say the true number of border victims may never be known.
Berlin prosecutors put the official total at 270 while the official Central Investigating Group for Government and Unification Crime cites 421 cases in which armed East German border guards are believed to have killed people trying to breach the wall.
The figure cited by the Working Group, which is based next to the former US-controlled Checkpoint Charlie border crossing at a Berlin Wall museum, includes deaths between the end of World War II in 1945 when the Soviets claimed control of East Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
The organization includes on its list East German border guards who were shot by people attempting to escape, killed by fellow soldiers, or who had committed suicide in response to orders to shoot their compatriots.
Hildebrandt said the organization would continue to press on with its research.
"There are still a lot of blanks in the record of East German history," she told reporters.
From the 1950s until the Wall's construction, some 2.5 million people had quit communist East Germany out of a population of some 19 million in 1947, prompting the country to take the extraordinary measure of sealing the border.
The organization's press conference falls each year ahead of the anniversary of the construction of the Wall, when East Germans woke up to find themselves prisoners of their own country.
In July, a Berlin Wall victims' memorial next to Checkpoint Charlie featuring two mock slabs of the barrier and more than 1,000 giant wooden crosses was forcibly dismantled amid protests.
Hildebrandt's museum lost a court battle to prevent the bank that owns the site from clearing it.
I have no problem with people expressing their rights and protesting. In fact, it is part of a functioning democracy. But if you ever think that you aren't free... think about these people who died trying to become someone who got a handout of 100 West German marks and a pat on the back.