20th Anniversary Of The Fall Of The Berlin Wall!

"Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us!" John F. Kennedy -June 26, 1963

And so, you say, the wall came down. A wall kept people in? Yes, those cold grey walls topped with concertina wire and guarded by a brutal and vigilant totalitarian military , so frightening that few dared to attempt to cross it. The tyranny and brutality of the Soviets seemed to be unbeatable; their oppression over the Eastern European satellite nations, mind-boggling. Secrets about neighbors, friends and even family activities were passed to Stasi officials to gain favor or special treatment, chipped away at the morality, civility and pride of a once cohesive and industrious people. Medicine, food, clothing and shelter remained at Post WWII levels, with rationing being the norm. All-the-while, their Western European counterparts flourished and enjoyed freedoms which, for those behind the iron curtain, were out-of-reach.

Some of my family escaped before the wall went up; one family to Vienna, another to West Berlin, while the rest remained in the Transylvanian Alps of Romania, where a few cousins live to this day. My parents immigrated to the United States in 1949, became citizens and then I was born in San Francisco in 1952. Letters to my relatives in the Eastern Bloc were read and inspected before my aunts, uncles and cousins received them. Some letters and packages never arrived; useful items that were certainly sold on the black market. Corruption and suspicion was rampant.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union one expected another miracle; that of returning to how it used to be. But, that, was not so easily achieved. With each subsequent generation, stories and memories faded and history was diluted. Additionally, a dependence had been fostered by the communist state to provide everything, no matter how paltry. Now, the people expected to be taken care of-no matter how bad it was!

Such destruction and evisceration of families, culture and nations will require at least a few more decades to repair-if ever.

History needs to be remembered, so that we don't allow it to repeat .