Day 28

Berlin was a divided city when I lived there from 1963-9. Some of my friends came from the East and had grown up under Russian and East German Authoritarianism. As a US citizen I could go over to the East either walking through Checkpoint Charlie or taking an underground U-Bahn to Friedrichstraße  The wall was omnipresent- and VoPo's marched on the East Side carrying weapons.  

I had friends from the East and some were involved in  the Black Market trying to bring food, clothing, and other essentials from West to East.  Once  my boss asked me to do a favor and bring his mother a basket of fruit. He was Jewish and survived the war in the Polish underground. Pictured with me is L who was from the East. He was involved in Black market, and had been caught several times- eventually it was one time too many and he was sentenced to 10 years. In this picture I am visiting him in prison--before he was sentenced. The place where he was eventually sent to Plötzensee has a grim history, crosses memorializing those hung who resisted Hitler were on the walkway.  This was 'Cold War'.

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