DRAW: Berlin Wall
Diary Entries
Diary Entries of Victor Broman, who lived during the Berlin Wall (1961-1990) and Cold War
January 8, 1964
My name is Victor Broman, I live in East Berlin. Things have changed since we lost the war and the Fuehrer was removed from power. The Berlin Wall was built todivideEast and West Berlin. One of the wall's primary functions is to stop the flow of people out ofCommunist areas. In the West people can at least speak out against their government without being accused of treason. Ever since the Cold War started and the US and USSR clashed in this power struggle, the Berlin Wall and iron curtain has divided Germany in two. And while the West Germans enjoy reparations and personal freedom, we are not so fortunate. These Russians have taken that freedom away from us, and I cannot stand it anymore. The Soviets think that they are making the world a better place by spreading and promoting communism, but their political and economic system just doesn’t work. They control the whole economy, so individual people cannot enjoy personal success.
March 5th, 1964
My Plan to Escape
It is the night that I embark to the west, far away from the iron curtain. Once the Soviet blockade ends I am leaving for good. I just want to be as far away from this horrible place and every day I live here it seems like I’m getting closer to being vaporized by a nuclear missile. I feel some regret for abandoning my homeland where I was born and raised, but I have no choice.
The Berlin Wall and the Berlin airlift represent the heart of our entire war. They symbolically show the entire clash of east versus west, capitalist versus communist, and democracy versus the corrupt government we have in this god forsaken place. I need to escape the bars of communism. This Cold War has taken its toll on Germany; there is poverty and starvation in East Berlin, while in West Berlin they have all the food and goods they need. The secret police spy on us every chance they get. They open our mail to make sure we aren’t receiving things from the West. We aren’t allowed to express any belief in God. If we disagree with the government, we go to prison.
The journey will not be easy. If I manage to either fake a passport, or somehow manage to sneak past the assortment of fences and guards, I am still blockaded inside West Berlin. But unlike the Russian communists who leave rubble in the streets to remind us of our pain, the United States have the Marshall plan which is intended to rebuild what they have destroyed. They actually care about reparations to our tattered land. The living conditions here in the East Berlin are filthy compared to the good living conditions in the West.
Diary Entry of Kommissar Malkovich (pro-communist)
Progress is good. Ever since we began to spread the glory of communism to the people of East Germany we have made significant progress. I am not going to lie, we did hit some bumps in the road; some of the Germans were too weak to embrace and understand communism, so they fled. But now we have secured our place in Germany and the people we influence with the Berlin Wall. This allows us to enlighten the people we defeated with our wonderful economic and political system. I am glad that we have been successful in doing this. The ones who commit treason are dealt with properly. We owe our success to the Berlin Wall. It keeps the people here under our care, and keeps the capitalists and corrupt Americans out. May we continue to succeed in our building of East Germany as a communist state and long live the Soviet Union!