the global corona tri says you can find more information online at d w dot com and on social media channels. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. or do mind phantom is in fact like she's got. his shots in the air as to his friends in which. he is in the movie you feel this is the 1st this is her. book area

for some just a summer paradise. for others the path to the free world. the 1980 s. when the world was still split into 2 camps with an iron curtain dividing europe bulgaria was part of the eastern socialist bloc it was also a magnet for tourists from east and west alike who were drawn to black sea coastal resorts. it became a place where germans from both sides of the wall could meet. you can see it was a citizen of the german democratic republic the g.d.r. in september 1988 he and a friend flew off to bulgaria from. view of all members of the hmong. who were there was our 1st time on a plane and we were hoping to have a nice holiday here in bulgaria at the c.c. . and when as well for me it was really satisfying for me to go on

a trip abroad for the 1st time. so until then i'd only been allowed to go on holiday in the g.d.r. . it was really a feeling of joy leaving the country for the 1st time that they have also come. at a time anybody who wanted to travel outside the g.d.r. had to request official permission it was a lengthy procedure one that you had also gone through. the flight to bulgaria took 3 hours his greatest adventure had begun he was $24.00. this is. he arrived in borg was. the terminal was bustling back then today it's been abandoned time seems to have stood still and the

memories come flooding back. you can see the lake was one of over 300000 tourists from east germany who visited bulgaria in 1988. he and his friend intended to spend 3 weeks relaxing and lying on the beach. they wanted to party meet people enjoying life. despite big brother watching. we were supposed to stay with a group or form smaller groups and never come into contact with others outside those groups with west germans for example and also feel of a sort of all when they wrote them and there were many west germans there. but we were supposed to stay with our east german group.

'd beginning in the 1960 s. the stasi started recruiting unofficial collaborators to work in bulgaria's holiday resorts these operative groups were given the task of keeping east german tourists under observation. at 1st the 2 friends kept to the unwritten rules they didn't want to draw attention to themselves or raise suspicion because they did indeed have an alter your motive for being there. and your we did want to have a nice holiday here but in fact we had other plans on the plane. and . once you've been hellish 80. if i had to say i'm not too kind. as well just your time. to fill up we got a. friend there was a nice t.v. film back then which we had watched on the one hand there were scenes where you saw the bulgarian border and it just seemed possible to go right up to it and cross at

those in the film there wasn't much checking going on which was so that's how we thought it would be. but the reality was very different the 2 friends were not aware of the fact that at least 339 people were shot trying to escape from bulgaria before 989 many of the documents relating to these deaths were destroyed if they were recorded at all. and his friend were on their way to their holiday destination sunny beach with gold necklaces and west german deutschmarks hidden in their socks to pay for their planned escape. new year's eve. i am not certain.

that only people who had hard currency could afford to spend an evening in the trendy bars and expensive restaurants this paradise was also clearly divided into 2 camps. the of one a north to this now if they want to sleep with the. rose garden the want to. have any influence boardman she order currency. you can see it was one of those unlucky guests from east germany. but when. this hotel here wasn't that great. the room was reasonably nice but whenever we took a shower it would completely flood everything and we would have to wait half an hour before the water drained away. leave. today the hotel has been

renovated is modern and inviting until 989 it was only for guests from socialist states. who used to be a translator runs the hotel now. directly opposite is the coup which back in the day was one of the most luxurious hotels on the beach. 10 west germans were also staying here in 1088. you can see when i quickly got to know them. they always took us with them and paid for everything. we didn't have much money we weren't allowed to exchange so much everything was restricted. so they took us with them to discos and places we would never have gotten into on our own. we became friends and

that was when we came up with an idea where. we thought maybe one of them could lend us their passport so that we could get on the boat to istanbul. then someone else would bring their passport back. but none of them dared. that was too risky for them. so the 2 friends had to rethink their plans. but they didn't give up. they were determined to leave the g.d.r. . they no longer considered it home.

but the decisive moment for me was when i wanted to go see my grandfather in the west who is turning 80. my mom and i both applied together she was allowed to go but my application was rejected. and then 3 or 4 months later my grandfather died. and my mother my sister and i applied and once again my application was rejected and so i thought to myself. why should i continue to live in a state that treats me like this. i can't even go to my grandfather's funeral. why should i live in this state will have to try to get out of here. i had already done my bit of the army for 18 months with my work plus overtime when

i'd finished school and my training and so on and i enjoyed it all and truly mind but then i was treated like this as if i were just a number and rejected without a reason. norma knew that was it for me. to be going though not all of those was. the 3rd of october 988630 am. yet. here this is you here you know you now deceased if you want. it had been a difficult night but there was no going back it had taken a long time to get this far. the 2 had dressed up hoping to pass for west germans they left their suitcases in their room after all they were just supposed to be going for

a hike. yet. their destination was the strand mountains on the bulgarian border with turkey. ethical trying to go i was a border guard here in this region to go. to bulgaria and figure the number. of the people crossing the border illegally. well mainly from the socialist camp. germany's poles and gary ins were to have come on holiday to bulgaria. but who actually wanted to get to western europe via turkey. or if you. ever thought. that was the post where the parts of it are. that's where i began my service in that building behind those streets. and here's the new building.

he retired almost 10 years ago and doesn't like to remember his time as a border guard even 30 years after the fall of the communist regime the subject of border security in bulgaria remains to boom. he doesn't want to give his real name either. so we're calling him story on twitter off. he was 37 in 1988. on the 3rd of october he was on duty he was highly concentrated. he could afford no mistakes as this would lead to punishment.

the border between bulgaria and turkey was a popular escape route because it was sparsely settled and there was a thick forest which offered protection and hiding places. i don't believe that anyone should have been allowed to escape from the border is. it was our job to catch anyone trying to flee. the world we didn't really know why they were leaving. if they had family in the west. it was just an adventure for them. and then. there. was simply to capture them. this didn't.

these are the remains of the old eastern block borders around. story until rob was on duty precisely here. at the time the area was finally raked so that movement could be easily detected. the guards would quickly notice any attempts to cover up tracks and be able to tell if it was an animal or a human who had left the tracks. the thorny bushes behind the fence were also a deterrent. and each time the fence was touched a silent alarm was sent to the border post. but this was not the final obstacle the actual border was 2 kilometers away but few people knew this. when the alarm was triggered 2 squads would be sent out one went to the 1st

crossing a restricted zone with a tracking dog the other unit went to the actual border people trying to escape hardly had a chance this is the area in which most defectors were shot dead. mr no. no i never shot anyone. i never shot at people here who are brutal in the form of the gun if someone was already close to the border and we couldn't catch him. we would shoot him yes 3 times. these were warning shots. but there were places where people were shot without warning probably the only person but have been talking about the actual border which was further away. it was a mistake a 3rd of the prison. warden someone if someone didn't give in self up there.

he would be shot at directly. there are prisoners that are so. we had no idea that guards were shooting there and that the border zone was patrolled to such an extent it was almost more secure than in the g.d.r. . you know they are all on 1st the 2 friends took the bus to book us then they took a taxi to maturity in the south of bulgaria without knowing it they were already in the border zone where anyone would have come under suspicion of trying to escape. they asked some locals if they would take them to the border but everyone refused saying it was too dangerous. for them. so they decided to continue on foot.

and. they had no idea what was going to happen. they still believed they had a good plan. if you really knew their goods there was no transport there wasn't a bus there was nothing there. there was only a very narrow road that was in pretty bad shape and not many cars. of guns and there was a sign with the words border zone on it and we saw it but that didn't matter we knew where we wanted to go. but that we would come across a sign like this so soon that was surprising to us because we didn't know that we were already in the border zone so far away from the actual border. we'd always thought it would be like in the film that we would be able to go right up to the border there would be a bridge or barrier or toll gate and we would simply go across it we didn't know

about the whole border zone. or control very well so i might. bus coming from a long way off over your health goes from 0.3 and with me i hope that my friend wouldn't wave it down but he did and the bus stop was on those walls it was an all of green bus see through. my forum my friend talked a lot and tried to make contact with the driver and to tell him that he was from hamburg and a tourist and he was going hiking here. goes home war over in your mind you. they try to bribe the driver with deutschmarks and a pin a picture but that didn't work. but. we're demure come the normal i got increasingly scared. i didn't know how to get out of the situation. we have all those who call. i thought that we could

maybe hijack the bus but i could have easily driven it. but we didn't do that either. though some of them for over. suddenly the bus came to a stop 13 kilometers from the turkish border 13 kilometers to freedom. they were made to get out and wait by the roadside under the watchful eyes of 2 border guards. and return to fall and then a jeep drove up before the above 30 they ordered us to stand up and they tied our hands behind our backs and pulled bags over our heads. and then they threw us into the back of the jeep which was on guns and we drove around for what felt like one

or 2 hours. before we didn't know where they were taking us it was a feeling i just can't describe it. he was extreme words for him. they were interrogated the same day. it was you can see who licks turned 1st. he would spend 6 hours in the interrogation room. he tried to stick to the story he'd worked out with his friend not a word about their plan defection. it was an elaborate fiction. is a. movie don't these questions came again and again. the interrogation went on for quite a long time. i told them we just wanted to visit the border area to look at it.

we'd agreed in advance not to admit we wanted to defect. but the questioning went on for hours and they explained to us what the border area looked like and that we were lucky they hadn't shot us in the group soon see here 1st and by that time i was so emotionally worn down that i told myself there's no point in denying it anymore and telling these people stories. so i admitted that i wanted to flee to turkey through bo garia and then go on to my relatives in west germany. you can see when they spent the 1st days after the failed escape attempts behind the walls of the central prison in bogus in solitary confinement in darkness. then he was transferred to another prison in sofia. there he shared a 3 by 4 meters cell with 2 other inmates.

we only had a 10 meter canister of water that. counted as drinking water. we had a wooden spoon with dirt on it so thick nobody would have dared to eat with it. the toilet was just a bucket it stood in the cell the whole day and was only emptied once a day. in november $988.00 you quest transferred to east germany and put on trial the sentence was one year and 6 months in prison. story and turn it off couldn't find the valuable watch he'd been given as a reward for another arrest but he has many souvenirs from his years of service stored in his basement. now.

i have no problem meeting up with him. i'm even curious to see him after so many years and shake his hand. so we can forgive. we all live in the same zone now in a free europe. but i don't know. back then. you know. so many themes in our family yes she has 4 children. i don't have any hard feelings towards this man. that's just how it went. so much has changed in the world after 31 years ago. nobody expected the wall would fall. that everything would be so free and open. none of us saw that coming.

for with this escape was the only possibility we saw. of it once we tried to make use of it. when we're home simple be open forum causal. ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready ready mechanisms wait a minute do i know you've. 'd 'd been there i'm you're going to serve welcome once again to bulgaria. i never would have expected to meet the man who arrested me here in bulgaria 31 years ago. do you recognize me have you still got the image in your mind i might have recognized your features a little for the moment 'd. it's been

a long time. but do you know how many people pass through here. through house and you were just doing your job here your work. but it's all in the past now. i mean. this guy i want. i want us to forgive each other we're brothers now living in one family. garia germany. we ought to turn a new page a portion of. the north and. the times are totally different and we're living in the here and now and not in the past in the forgotten. was released from prison early now he lives in southern germany and works as a stock man story on $2.00 still lives in the area his son became a border guard 2. decades after the fall of the iron curtain

the bulgarian turkish border is once again closed off now it's meant to stop people from entering the european union.

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