at this hour coming up after the break as our documentary voices i fire of course have more news headlines for you at the top of the hour if that's not soon enough you can check out our website and get over your dot com or our social media w. news and characters and embroiling from the whole scene here it's much for watching . train kids. they love flashy wigs and glitter glitter glitter their fight against prejudice i got called playboy and recognition. of the stores on the big stage. show kids starts may 17th on g.w. .

right to us wherever you are have you have on your mind unsigned letter. she could be hard for over 20 years as the cold war raged between east and west british journalist austin harrison with his radio broadcast and german business behind the iron curtain. this is the one calling. in his radio program unsigned letters austin harrison commented on letters that reached him from communist east germany. dear radio london you give us hope help us please do it we trust you for decades thousands of east germans wrote to the b.b.c. reporting the day to day and political problems in their lives on the.

but the letter writers had no idea that the popular b.b.c. radio program was at the center of a propaganda battle in divided germany. in 1938 o'clock would become the b.b.c. world service began radio broadcasts from london to other countries and languages their food london calling them. so you don't hear what so that the asylum ali. the b.b.c. also began broadcasting to germany and 938 when the war began a year later listening to it was banned but many risked their lives to tune into it

as a reliable and reputable news source after the war ended the b.b.c. developed a special service for what became east germany because it received more and more letters from there at the beginning of the $950.00 s. the program unsigned letters began intended as a counterbalance to communist media it quickly became a hit with eastern audience. and if there were a free press and free radio stations that we could probably stop broadcast and above all we would not need to call it letters. in east germany it was forbidden to listen to what the government called western hate stations. anyone who wrote a letter to them would quickly be branded an enemy of the state. german writers on a shared has travelled to an unremarkable reza. angela area of the english city of

reading she is on her way to the b.b.c.'s written archives here she has rediscovered the long forgotten letters from east germany that reached britain in the cold war she has written a book about them as which was citizens so i knew there was over 20 years' worth of material that's then when i saw it for the 1st time i thought to myself oh god that's a lot of you then there's even more buried in the archives. tens of thousands of letters are kept here written between 1950 s. and 970 s. . he's a player even these letters are unique documents of their times because they are very personal and people wrote anonymously wrote about life their wishes their hopes despair everything including the repression and their fear that august.

when the brown and gale was built in august 1961 cementing the division of germany east german b.b.c. listeners reacted. one can offer and you can also see a change in tone in the letters to their very passionately political a much more sullivan in proceeding here is the done they take a stand make demands make requests to western politicians even president kennedy to save us. kennedy you know that edwards you give us hope you. help us. don't wait too long. dear radio london. this is the wall of shame.

code named young person from east germany i am still a child but i understand what is going on here in east germany in a school they incite us against the capitalist countries. can you please answer my question soon please do it i trust you. can hines bowshot from thais found her as one of those youthful letter writers back than. the son of a homemaker and the accountant he had a pretty typical childhood for his time. i'd have to say i was perhaps an average east german teenager doubts. did it all i always had a leading role in the young pioneers group. then class before but my class i was

usually the deputy leader for all and us was so much for the staff ok i only became critical of the developments in east germany in the 7th or 8th grade. then western radio stations played are also. holds a lot more port. like many other young people karl-heinz was enthusiastic about rock'n'roll which he listened to on stations such as the b.b.c. . but also politically he began to move away from the official thinking of east germany. in 1980 wrote to unsigned letters for the 1st time when he was just 16 years old. the ts. soviet troops invaded czechoslovakia violently putting down the democratic

reforms of the communist government in prague. it was an injustice that was also found in east germany. needed an outlet for his anger about it. some of our part of the steer employees of the german service of radio london i really like your program because it shows our people's opinions that cannot be seen in our media i am 16 years old and would like to write a few things about the mood of young people regarding the events in czechoslovakia with the. predominant poster versus the shall i believe that the west has not taken strong enough steps against this invasion was done and must a country that has struggled to win just a bit of freedom always be forced to continue on the old path under moscow's rule of what the mushier warm greetings from a student who writes for. another

letter writer to the b.b.c. was york i'm alan born in saxony in our lives as a retired pastor in berlin the democratic west and its symbols of freedom are important to him to this day. grow up in and around dresden is home life he was in voluntarily forced into the role of an outsider in 1948 holds mother met his future father a u.s. soldier on a trip to west but then if he wanted to visit his little some unlikely couple could only meet in secret with the others wanted to yes of course that was very dangerous because on the one had the americans did not allow my father to travel to the soviet zone of occupation and on the other hand it was dangerous for him to show up as an. eric and interest and within the soviet zone are in place as american so he

had to come in civilian clothes. but one day the secret visits ended in disaster and then at human command someone realized wait a minute this is an american speaking english so they denounced my father and which resulted in my mother having to flee overnight. when admission she had to leave me with my grandparents where i was very safe. if you are came and grew up with him and from the 1st days of school it was made clear to him that he really wasn't wanted in east germany. or that i was then called to the teacher's desk comes out the front. i was made to stand in front of the school hear the show take a look at ruskin while his mother betrayed our public his father is an enemy of the state his grandparents and great grandparents were capitalists there's

a row now back to your seat and tried to make things better so as a child i was always an outsider. radio was his consolation and an important link to the outside world anyone who wrote 2 unsigned letters from east germany felt safe doing santa because the b.b.c. made it possible to write anonymous me. or get on my boat and here again in a dress through which all letters can reach us cost krupa. perlin well for me we're strasser 7. i repeat. the b.b.c. came up with a system of coverage dresses in west berlin eastern is to write to the program. in london germany going to book carter was one of its producers. the take of the cover

addresses where the address is to which people in berlin should write as well they were never real people's addresses they were buildings that had been destroyed or houses where other people that were not of war. also masa. lin 25 mark cup. in this way the letters could make it across the bow and has been conspicuously as possible as part of the everyday postal traffic but still went on between the 2 sides. and then the west berlin postal service would know to forward these letters to the b.b.c.'s berlin office and from there they would be sent by diplomatic mail back to london. and in london they would be treated very securely they were kept in

a safe overnight so there was very restricted access as to who got to see these letters because of the risks to east germans writing to b.b.c. . but here are a few lectures confirmations emergency call to me golden wedding. i loyalty listen now if you don't believe click and every letter got a code word. either people have given themselves one want or we gave a code word if possible and connection with the content of the letter you know out of the way 1st so that when he heard it if the letter writer would realize my letter is coming up. it's my belief. yes and then of course it was unforgettable. i heard my letter read out and quickly called my grandmother who was standing somewhere near by. the then and said she was horrified to learn that it was my letter that had been wrecked and of course she

was immediately terrified and swore at me but shouldn't 3rd how could i be so reckless to write to a station bogland. it could mean that we would all be going to jail. but who was there is austin her risen to whom east german listeners willingly entrusted their personal views and put themselves at risk burn and historian emily oliver has intensively research the history of the b.b.c.'s german service and that of its popular but very idiosyncratic moderator. becomes the berlin representative for the b.b.c. german service in 1950 and he stays in the until $55.00 at which point he returns to london and he takes over letters with that signature and he works on that program for the next 20 years but we know very little about austin harrison he seems to finish this is a mystery even to people who worked with him it seems boston harrison regularly

travelled to east germany in the 1960 s. and seventy's the b.b.c. was well aware of his trips but it made little mention of them and its reporting. time peter son became the host of a new b.b.c. music program and got to know him. very soon went to the east germany for the fair and various other events like that and then he would come back reports precious little about what he had done what he had seen what conclusions. what does it you do there. by contrast harrison's trips to east berlin was always a special topic east germany's feared secret police. always kept close.