Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall?. 170 Sites around the World онлайн

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Citizens from West Berlin were still permitted to enter East Berlin in the days immediately after the Wall was built. Many took this opportunity to smuggle friends and relatives back over the border using West Berlin papers and passports. Passes for West Berliners visiting the East were made obligatory on 23^rd August.

This rule was made obsolete on 25^th August after the Allies and West Berlin Senate refused to set up GDR permit offices. There was no further direct contact between citizens in the East and the West until the first border-pass agreement was made in December 1963. Only those in possession of a West German passport and foreigners could cross the border – or refugees who used forged papers. Others escaped to West Berlin via sewage systems – until the sewers were also blocked up with metal bars. But imagination in finding escape routes knew no bounds.³⁶ Holes and weak points were constantly searched for. Refugees disguised as foreigners took the interzonal train to ferries bound to Scandinavia. Cars were converted, people concealed in cases, diplomats won over to help with escape attempts, paths made over East Europe and hot air balloons built.