they.forget about we and let's think about us. >> each week american history's real america brings archival films that provide context for today's public affairs issues. up next, from 1953, let us live. it tells the story of german refugees fleeing the soviet occupied zone through lynn to west germany. estimated 20,000 germans were crossing the border each month. this u.s. army film is about 20 minutes. >> berlin, the target area for

the strangest invasion of all time, and invasion by its own people, germans fleeing oppression in the soviet zone. 1945, the german republic is in political asylum to more than 9 million refugees, expel ease, and displaced persons. instigatedhe soviets the policy which slams shut the borders between the east and the west, the only escape left is through berlin it's self. , fighting, and always after dark part these hundred people are pouring into the city on an average of 20,000 per month. desperately overburdened

city finally broadcast an urgent appeal to the people in the soviet zone with these words, do not leave unless you are in diarist need. be deprived ofot honest freethinking germans. we beg you, stay on the soil of your homeland. come. still they a new nation is growing rapidly within berlin. the nation of the homeless. law, all refugees register and asked to be granted sanctuary. of the 2000 refugee camps in the german republic, over 70 are in berlin. no one's are continually being added. these are the acceptance camps, where each refugees must live and wait until his cases reviewed while his fate is being decided. a camp, abound out -- abound out factor providing shelter such as it is during this.

of waiting. see, the voices in you here, the interviews you will witness are the faces and voices and stories of those refugees themselves. people fromamiliar every walk of life. people like you and me. the things that happened to them could happen to us, here, but for the grace of god. here a person loses his name and becomes a number. it is better to become nameless men risk the safety of someone who has been left behind. a blankets, a tinplate, and a cup. these become a person's total earthly belongings. -- desperatedekker lack of housing facility's families have to be separated. >> you have to sleep in the men's ward. >> the manna from the women. -- the men from the women.

♪ lace sos in a strange far from home is frightening and very lonely. maria had a pretty little house in saxony of her own. ♪ where men are able to carry their own beds and to their sleeping quarters. it is not difficult. straw pallet to lay on a floor isn't very heavy. too. is loneliness here, a man who is married for 40 years is awkward with a needle. he is writing a letter to his wife telling her he hates her and not to think of him again.

he hopes this will protect her when the police questioned her about his escape, and he hopes he will understand just how much he really loves her. they are homesick and dream of school and friends. if they are allowed to stay in the west, they won't grow up and be beaten into a homeless cripple like this man was his crime, he was arrested as a no coal because he had to feed the army celebrating leningrad's birthday. there is one hot meal a day. campn feeds in this one one in 4000 refugees in the two hours between 6:00 and 8:00 each night. it is not much of a meal. there will be no frightening not on the door to disrupt their supper, and perhaps their lives. and for this they give thanks.

♪ values change in times of deep trouble. a simple thing like children are afraid to seeing the hymns of their homeland. , youristen, all you are home and your parents and your things,ll the little andures, and all your toys your books and your trains. it maybe you had a little kitten and you miss all that, yes?

one thing you have not lost, you know what i mean? our good lord and you can never lose him if you really love him. , even ifays with you you don't see him. he watches over you and you need not worry. >> a man's mind emerges and thinks again reading a newspaper without fear of the rest. their playground is a strip of a rubble kind of barbed wire. is ahe west berlin police boy's friend and protector instead of a uniformed threat to run and hide from. privacy,ever a moment cana boy and his wife comfort themselves with the signing dream that their baby will be born in a free land. a farmer's wife can speak out loud against a precious -- oppression and godlessness.

and in the bad moments of loneliness and despair, a woman can seek and receive comfort from a priest of her own faith. >> imagine at that time within one million people had been killed in 1945 and 1946. >> yes, i know. >> and the catholic church had lost more than one third pair where did you go then? >> and you liked it? >> we didn't have much of a choice. theusband had a drop and repair shop and so did i'd. we built a little house all by ourselves with a small kitchen. ago, whenthree weeks they destroyed all of our plans and hopes for the future, we went by to a birthday party and there were some other people.

they were very nice, but the men started to talk politics. .e could not believe it when they came and warned us they were going to arrest us and we should leave right away. invited ton't been the birthday party. , notuld not take anything even a bag. he said we would not have time to pack. we left within five minutes. sent herter, we had away on vacation. we could not take her with us. we couldn't wait for her. there in thel russians own question -- in the russian zone? >> yes she is still there. >> she will be with you again. remember how many terrible things have happened, not only

their but everywhere. we could not buy food and we had to look for in the houses which were abandoned. but we made it after all, and you will make it to. there is always a way out even if we don't see it. same kitchen where food is dispensed for the stomach, food is dispensed for the sole very not much of a church perhaps, but god is there , and a man is free to worship as he pleases. a man is free to preach what is in his heart. to play with,oys but small hands are taught how to build something out of nothing, and a child who learns how to build a plaything and learns how to build a life. ♪ this little rabbit is the

innocent reason an entire family had to flee. teacher in then soviet zone offered a prize to the child and the best story about what their parents talked about at home. the little rabbits won the prize. jump little rabbit. jump, jump, jump. poets, scholar, young priest just a boy who didn't believe a monk of things that babies should be trapped into betraying their parents. >> why did you leave the russian zone? >> my father's ideas come which i could not share, from the show my conviction that communism is something we should fight. all refugees must undergo many different screening process is --ning the waiting period waiting period.

>> he put in medication for relief. if she wanted to leave she had to be worth it. we left the russian zone. interview,ach standing and waiting their turn to explain again and again why they came. >> do you go to school for four street? so why didn't you finish it? >> they deem to be politically unreliable and it would not let me go in for the exam. become only wanted me to a member of the people's police and then i would pass all exams. why did this young couple ask sanctuary in a free world? wife are employed in a

factory. she worked as a pipe boost. and sent tomission russia to be assembled. i was supposed to go to russia with five of our engineers to supervise. they wanted to make a sign in definite times. i told him i would not sign. refusal, with both left the following morning. and i know soviet force labor. they gave me three days and when we got on and decided to leave that night. not accept the proposal it was the most important thing was to get out of the russian zone. >> are these people politicians or persons who played with politics? >> because i did not belong to the party and i had to find an escape. i was suddenly drafted to work in a big mining company. a sense i had been in the army,

they wanted me for a special job. they gave me all this to teach the workers how to shoot. d and a friend more me they would force me to do it. >> are they playing ordinary people like you and me? produced special wagons which were used. the bolsheviks were determined to find a way. because they could not find a reason, they open them up. this was based on the phony charge that the keeping of the last five years was absolutely incorrect. my bookkeeping was correct. they wanted a factory and in order to get it legally, one of people had to be a sentence in prison for hard labor appeared obviously, i would have been the victim.

since i know their methods, i preferred not to take any chances. the next morning i left and arrived in berlin within four days. >> could do things that happen to them happen to us? every farmer to deliver a certain amount of grain. i fled because i could not deliver enough and the supervisor came and asked me why. that was when i came back from berlin. i said no. i did not do anything the electricity was cut off and i had to rig a payer. i have no fodder. i said to the supervisor, isn't it much simpler if you bring his own along >> i grabbed arm and i said you better work and maybe you will hang some day to. and two hours later

he comes back and gives me a letter from the police. it was a summons from the district. it said i had to report on friday night in berlin aired when i arrived there, they wanted the letter and i gave it to them and he put it on his desk. he asked me if i had sent it to the supervisor. yes, i say i sent it. well, then you are one of those who still hold that the americans will come. that out of your head, he says. you are going to deliver one and a half tons wednesday, and you better not keep me waiting. that is what he said. about 6:00, and i said to my wife, what are we going to do now? we had been married for 50 years. land longeds, the

to my family. i was born here and i will kill myself before i give up that. andill take our clothes then leave for west berlin. that is what we did. >> lights out. the moment of darkness indicted by everyone. the nights are the worst always. it is at night when a woman prays and a man lies with full and thinks. it is at night when a person wonders desperately did i say it right? will they believe me? will they let me stay? what they give me a chance to work and be free? will i be united with my husband? >> and our daughter, we couldn't take her with us. we couldn't wait for her. >> we had been married for 50 years. for 200 years the land belonged to my family.

i was born here. >> hear any drama packed room, the evidence is weighed and the judgment is pronounced. here a three-man commission, men elected by the people is a terrible responsibility of deciding thousands of human destiny. no one is sent back. those who can prove they fled because of personal danger or other pressing reasons are granted the right to work and the right to live as individual free people. for the rejected once, a bare existence. objects of a meager charity. knowing this, still they come. the darkness and into the light. ♪ people tried patiently to live under a system that did not allow them to live. people whose only crime was an

unshakable believe in the dignity of man. people who held to be to a simple but mighty words of berlin's freedom bell. andlieve in the sacredness dignity of an individual. i believe that all men derive the right to freedom equally from god. aggression resist and tyranny wherever they appear on earth. , under god, shall have a new birth of freedom. >> labor day weekend on american history tv on c-span3. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, tonight, fears about overpopulation. >> some of the issues talked

about our pesticides was a big one. pollution was a big one. nonrenewable resources and things like oil and gasoline. but, the super big one, thing that overshadowed that first earth day was the process of global famine due to overpopulation. >> sunday on the presidency. the friendship between presidents hoover and truman. fax it is easy to overlook the fact they both had roots in farming communities. they had known economic hardship and self-reliance. they were transformed by the conspiring shrub world war i, and they lived in the shadow of franklin d. roosevelt. >> the 1967 detroit riots. about itrefer to think like a rebellion. all of the activism that went into that moment had long been

predicted. people had been begging for remedy for housing discrimination. there was police brutality and economic problems. that could not be understood as just chaotic and incoherent. >> three-day labor day weekend on american history tv on c-span3. >> if you are teacher of social studies and civics in middle and high school students, try our classroom resources at the c-span classroom website. there are ready to go resources including current event, lesson and handoutsplans and tools to engage your students in discussions with new content added regularly. many teachers across the country use these resources. it is free, quick, and easy. go to c-span.org/classroom to sign up.

>> all weekend, american history tv is featuring spokane, washington. c-span city to her staff visited sites and it is located in eastern part of the state 280 miles from seattle. the city is home to about 200 thousand people as well as gonzaga university. learn more about spokane all weekend here on american history tv. >> when we open hate -- a historic house to the public, one of the purposes is to help tell the story of the community through a house. i think e-house offers an exhibition style than a gallery. a historic house can relate to it. lots of people live in different kinds of houses, so it is a way of connecting. we are using that as a bridge to work about all kinds of