Imagine having to conform, be trapped behind a wall of (in the GDR's case), barbed wire and be unable to listen to the music you want. This was the reality for those unfortunate enough to have been living in the Eastern Bloc countries until 1989. And even after said year the nightmare was not completely over. Many were disillusioned by Communism, going as far to say that they missed the 'regime' and that they had been better off under it! Others, like Miriam, were like ghosts - merely existing because their souls and lives had been sucked out of them. Of all the people in the above book, Miriam's story is especially brutal. As a teenager she became an enemy of the state and for said privilege was tried for sedition and sentenced to one and a half years in prison. Her nightmare though was not over and because of said crimes was unable to work, eventually being deported from the GDR six months before the wall came down. The Stasi broke her as a person and unfortunately she was one of many whose lives were ruined by Communism.
Many people even now romanticise Communism or glorify the hammer and sickle and it is unfathomable. Stalin, although an ally in WWII, was not so after 1945. Churchill and FDR had to swallow their contempt and work with Stalin in order to defeat Hitler as at this point Nazism was deemed more of a threat than Communism. So it was more or less a case of removing one ideology then dealing with the other, so to speak (the Americans knew the Soviets would not adhere to the Marshall Plan as it was unlikely to have passed through Congress had Molotov accepted - were very aware that there would be some sort of conflict betwixt the liberal west and the east).
In his infamous speech 'Sinews of Peace' in March 1946 where the phrase the 'Iron Curtain' was first used in relation to the Cold War, Churchill did not realise how correct he was to be.
By August 1961 it's physical presence (the wall) had been erected - barring East Berliners from the west, and for nearly 40 years people would be shot for trying to escape (or face incarceration like Miriam). Communist leaders were that suspicious of the west and 'democracy'. And what is haunting is that this was still going on 31 years ago.
Returning to the book though I'd highly recommend this if you're interested in the Cold War (especially the GDR). Also, the BBC aired a very good series called 'The Lost World of Communism' over a decade ago and it is available on YouTube. The first episode deals with the GDR, episode two with Czechoslovakia, episode three with Romania.
It is important to study this fascinating period of history and remember those voices that, until 1989, were silent in Europe.
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