Posted on 08/21/2017 7:15:22 AM PDT by rktman
As kids, we heard the stories of Cuban political prisoners. Our family dinner table was a classroom, with my parents telling us about communism or reading the latest letter from Cuba.
I grew up admiring the men and women who risked their lives to fight for freedom.
Among these men were Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary, the heroes who tried to cross the Berlin Wall, the guerrillas who fought Castro in the Escambray Mountains in the forgotten war of the 1960s that Enrique Escinosa wrote about, and those who tried reforms inside the Soviet bloc.
Back in August 1968, the Rascals were riding high with a song called "People Got to Be Free."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
My aunt married a Czech scientist who was visiting John Hopkins University where my aunt was working. She returned with him to Prague. Their first child was only 3 months old when the Russian tanks rolled in. Very scary times for them.
This same type of courage is going on now in Venezuela.
The American Press is ignoring it because they think they are being paid to ignore it.
I studied abroad in Prague shortly after the wall came down. We started out in Berlin and had to take the train to the east side in order to catch the train to Prague. Let me tell you, leaving bright, crowded, modern Zoo station and then exiting into a dank, depressing hole with standing water, flickering lights, and signage still written in that old German typeface...it was like walking into a time capsule. The station still looked exactly as it had in 1945. The few people in the east station did not speak, they whispered. They stared at us like we were from outer space. It was unnerving. Soviet soldiers entered our rail car when we crossed the border. They were not happy to see us, but there was nothing they could do about it. That summer with the Czechs was extremely enlightening. Simple things that you would never think about unless you had experienced it...a city surrounded by fertile farmland, yet you couldn’t find a fresh vegetable anywhere.
Yup. Utopia. I went across in ‘62 and it sounds like things didn’t improve much over the years between when I was there and you were there. We took a bus through Checkpoint Charlie and when we got to the east side the east German soldiers boarded the bus and bee lined to me sitting all the way in the back. Teenager, blonde hair. Yeah, I was a real threat. LOL! Papers please. The difference between West Berlin and East Berlin was astonishing at the time. Like you said, vibrant and prosperous to depressing in an instant.
Visited the Brandenburg Gate and saw the Russian T-34 monument on the western side. Bold reminder to the Germans. Stopped by Checkpoint Charlie. A bit farther along saw some naive young man pick up a chunk of brick or rock and bounce it in his hand staring at the Vopos as if going to throw it their way. Everybody froze when the Vopo drew back the bolt on the heavy machine gun. Two other older members of the guys group swarmed him and frog marched him away. Guess he hadn't been following the news of Vopos actually shooting.
Had a great time in the Berlin nightspots as well as in other parts of Germany. Two weeks later returned to the States from Paris. A day later came the invasion.
Yeah, that blond male thing. I got the fish eye a few times along the wall. Tall, wide shouldered, short haired blond man wearing coat and tie. Made me recall that HS classmates said my yearbook photo looked like a recruiting poster for the Wehrmacht. Guess I really did look like that. F’em they can’t take joke.
LOL! They weren’t joking either.
"Some of the East German police were rude and suspicious. Others were suspicious and rude." - C.R. McNamara (One, Two, Three)
Two other girls who were with us were riding the subway to some of the outer boroughs of Prague and noticed this man kept staring at them. Then he walked over to them, without saying anything, and got down on one knee next to them to inspect their shoes! They were both wearing those high-top Reebok shoes that were popular at the time...with the Velcro fasteners at the ankle. Then he stood up, muttering something in Csesky, and walked off.
And the trains themselves were a totally different experience. The lavs on the trains on the western side were like airplane lavatories, you know, flushable with tanks. The train on the east side...well, you lifted up the lid and could see the train tracks zipping by underneath you! And I still remember going through Dresden and how miserably depressed that place looked. It looked like they had never bothered even rebuilding after the war. Nothing had been painted. Windows all still broken out. Huge heaps of garbage piled next to the train tracks.
But communists do it right, so we're told. They are true stewards of the environment because they don't make anything.
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