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GITA ASSEFI

SongSoptok | 12/10/2014 |




THE RISE AND FALL OF THE WALLS…

Walls are built to protect and walls are built to divide and alienate. During the second world war, Ann Frank and her family could survive a little more behind the walls until the German Nazis found out about their refuge and demolished the door and sent them to the concentration camp.

 A month ago, Germany commemorated the fall of the Berlin war. Fall of the Berlin war also meant fall of a ongoing dictatorship in Berlin. At that time, The Soviet had taken a large part of the East Berlin after a fierceful war. On the other hand, The US, France and Britain had taken control of the West Berlin. One of the few structures that had remained was The Brandon Brigade which later sadly served to divide the West and the East berlin.

Post war Berlin was a wasteland and a lot of refugees streamed to the West as the West was more prosperous and there were better job opportunities. Later on the government in the east which was worried about losing all qualified people to the West decided to build a wall and this way prevent people to pass to the other side.

The decision was made in a short time. On August 13,1961 at midnight, The soviet started to build a wall to stop the refugees going to the West Germany. The building of the Wall was a long procedure. They first used stone and brick and later on used better materials to strengthen it. Thousands of families and relatives split apart and a lot of people got wounded and killed in their attempt to pass to the other side. The Soviet had hired many border guards to look out and they had poured sand on the ground to detect the footprints of the possible escaper.

Imagine that you have found a good job on the other side of the Wall and you cant go to your job. Imagine relatives, lovers who were condemned into not seeing each other again. You could see lots of graffities of protest which  painted and then immediately cleaned by the border guards.

Finally on 9th November 1989, after a civil unrest in the East Germany and the erosion of The soviet in Poland and Hungary, the East government ordered the fall of the wall and people celebrated it by sitting on the walls and even taking pieces as a souvenir. Later on this helped the reunification of the East and the West Germany.

One wonders why mankind never learns lesson from the grim history and why history keeps repeating itself. Let’s hope to see walls built for the sake of protection not division and what about the walls that we build inside our hearts and in years we strengthen it with the cement of hatred, sensitivity, grudge and doubt when after all it is a short life. Can’t we all live in happiness and trust?
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[GITA ASSEFI]


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