What is happening? No Way. They actually built a wall and my father and brother on the other side. Will I ever see them again...
East Berlin, 1961. Berlin Wall is just built
Mom, we'll be back with them one day, I promise.
They actually did it Fritz. The Soviets build a wall. Will I ever see my son and husband again.. they're stuck on the other side of the wall
One day on the way to school 4 Years later
Later...
My friend Peter is going to escape tonight... He is going to be sneaked in through a car from a group of school kids going to a museum here from West Berlin.
Is that Dad and Dominic on the viewing platform? And why are they doing a digging dance? Do they want me to dig under the wall or something?
I hope he will make it out of here alive
Stop looking over the wall or I'll hit you with the butt of my gun!
Sorry!
The next morning...
Lysbilde: 2
After school the same day
Peter didn't make it out alive. The Stasi guards caught him, and he was killed...
After work, Fritz was taken by the Stasi to be interrogated and punished for his involvement in Peter's attempted escape.
Maybe I need to reconsider escaping by digging a tunnel under the wall
Where is Fritz?
Will I ever see Fritz again?
A Few Weeks later... They write on notes to talk secretly
The Next Day
The apartment was bugged by the Stasi... we must be careful what we say they can hear everything we talk about
We need to escape here before it becomes too oppressed and before we can never see Dad and Dominic again
Gerta, I am going to escape tonight. and nothing can change my mind. If I don't, I will be put in the Stasi military. If I do, I will be back with Dominic and Dad and I will escape this terrible side of the divided city we live in
He is in terrible condition the Stasi must have tortured him...
Don't escape like that it's too dangerous
Lysbilde: 3
After school, Gerta and her older brother Fritz would meet at an old, abandoned WWII bomb shelter behind and alleyway which hugged the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall not only separated Berlin physically but also mentally as Gerta's family had been separated in two. There, they would go inside the bomb shelter and start digging a tunnel under the Berlin wall to escape the oppressive East Berlin. There were deadly consequences if they were caught, but if they did not escape before Fritz has to report for military service, they could be separated from their father and brother for as long as they know it.
I have a better plan, Dad wants us to dig a tunnel from a WWII bomb shelter, so we're going to dig a tunnel under the wall. Meet me after school, were digging a tunnel under the wall.
Although they faced many challenges while building the tunnel like loss of energy and starvation, they were determined to finish the tunnel because family is important. They even had a garden they were building in front of the bomb shelter to disguise where all the dirt is going and to make it seem like all of their hard work was going to a garden and not a tunnel so the Stasi wouldn't catch them. They even made many friends who planned to escape with them
I'm tired too, but we need to go faster to finish this tunnel and take all the dirt out and in just the span of a few weeks..