"The story of Tunnel 29" - This is Amazing - Detailed Berlin Wall Tunneling & Human Will and Courage

[cc]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

[Anonymous]

Great part of history. My paternal grandparents are from Germany.

[Anonymous]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

Ah, I see cc.

[Blazor]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

Ah, I see cc.

The book we were suppose to of read this year Fash  



I did finally see the movie though.

[Gaon]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

Ah, I see cc.

The book we were suppose to of read this year Fash  



I did finally see the movie though.

Maybe she did.

[Anonymous]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

Ah, I see cc.

The book we were suppose to of read this year Fash  



I did finally see the movie though.

I remember Fash saying she wants to read 1984.

[Anonymous]

Yes, liberation was



I'm referring to the book / movie 1984 where govt control was total ..  East Berliners lived it

Ah, I see cc.

The book we were suppose to of read this year Fash  



I did finally see the movie though.

Maybe she did.

Not yet.

[Anonymous]

Remembering the death of the Berlin Wall, icon of the Cold War



The momentous event many believed their lifetimes would never see occurred 30 years ago Saturday when the Berlin Wall came crashing down in a flurry of pickaxes, bulldozers and political uncertainty.



The fact I was there was more to do with luck than it was wise planning, for no one would have predicted what would happen that night.



I was the Sun's European bureau chief at the time, based out of London, and was actually in Poland finishing up an interview with the Solidarity movement's founder's Lech Walesa when a phone call from head office in Toronto sent me to Berlin.



It was the Sun's editor-in-chief, Les Pyette, now retired but a bonafide legend in the newspaper game, who said another politburo change among the Soviet Union's hierarchy in East Germany might be worth a look.



It was a time in the media's evolution that newspapers were virtually a licence to print money because the Internet, which would later rain hell on newspapers and see thousands of journalists unemployed to cut costs, had yet to be sophisticated.



Print was king back then, and expense money no object.



Within hours, therefore, I found myself sitting in the press theatre in East Berlin with scores of others, waiting for Gunter Schabowski to show up to say whatever he was going to say, for no one knew.





Today, there is a largish number of North American journalists who claim they were there, much like Woodstock, not for the aftermath of the Wall coming down but actually in that small press theatre waiting for Schabowski to effectively change the course of history.



But, truth be known, there were only a handful, in particular a freelancer named Philip Winslow, a friend who somehow snagged an office in the Reichstag, and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, who would use the time of day and a television hookup to break the news to the world.



He and I spoke for almost an hour amongst ourselves because what his interpreter heard was somewhat different than what my interpreter heard, and this was no time or occasion to make even the slightest mistake.



Not only was the Wall coming down, but the Cold War that it symbolized and the Soviet Union that had it go up almost overnight in 1961 as demanded by Kremlin hardliner Nikita Khrushchev were on a collision course to their end.



As East German snipers stood motionless in their watchtowers that night, there was chaos below as joyous Berliners bravely climbed the Wall armed with pickaxes and adrenalin and began to tear it down.



The first "official" opening occurred the following morning when an East German bulldozer broke through a path for pedestrians who, once in West Berlin, saw for the first time the wealth on exhibit by scores of well-lit shops selling the fresh fruit and vegetables unimaginable to them.



A drive through East Berlin was like night compared to West Berlin's day. Buildings and alleyways were still pockmarked by bullets fired in the Second World War and the city looked as if frozen to the darkness of the mid-1940s.



Before flying back to England, I went to the Commonwealth War Cemetery in West Berlin and found the grave of Pilot Officer Daniel Bonokoski who, at the age of 23, was shot out of the sky over Berlin while on a mission with the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command where the odds of dying were a 50-50 coin toss.



He was my father's cousin and best friend but my father, Matt, who also flew in Bomber Command, somehow won the coin flip and made it home.



He attributed it to blind luck.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/bonokoski-remembering-the-death-of-the-berlin-wall-icon-of-the-cold-war">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... e-cold-war">https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/bonokoski-remembering-the-death-of-the-berlin-wall-icon-of-the-cold-war