Page 73 - Jan Sun Rays

Peeking behind the
“Iron Curtain”

By Sandy Nielsen

Sun City resident Sandy Nielsen in front of the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, Germany. The red star is a reminder of
Stalin’s hosting here of a meeting with the U.S. and Great Britain to resolve issues relating to the end of World War II.

Most of a generation has passed dome provides a unique look into the leg- not even imagine seeing it all in only a
since the Iron Curtain crum- islative chambers, symbolic of the trans- couple of days. However, one particular
pled and the Berlin Wall was parency of the reunified government. trip off the beaten path is well worth the
dismantled, but inquiring travelers may Perhaps you’d stop by KaDeWe (short for effort. The Ministry for State Security
still be shocked to learn what life was Kaufhaus des Westens, or “Department (Stasi) in the GDR had a reputation for
like only 25 years ago in the former Ger- Store of the West”), Continental Europe’s being one of the most effective, repressive
man Democratic Republic (GDR - East largest department store, or Checkpoint and secretive intelligence organizations
Germany), the former Czechoslovakia Charlie, a recreation of a formerly infa- ever to have existed. Officially dissolved
and Poland. mous border crossing between East and in December of 1989, their old Berlin
West Germany. headquarters have been turned into a
You might start your journey of discovery museum. Inside are examples of how
in Berlin, as my husband Nick Martinez Only a few bits of the former Berlin Wall everywhere, “bugs” were deployed to spy
and I did last fall. Spend a few days rid- remain. Today, an easily overlooked on people: hidden inside tree trunks, in
ing the underground to all the obligatory brick line in the streets graphically il- neckties, behind buttons on clothes and
sites: the stunning Pergamon Museum; lustrates how neighborhoods and streets in birdhouses. Even “scent files” were
the bombed out Kaiser Wilhelm Memo- were divided chaotically, almost over- kept for use in tracking people. Pieces
rial Church, its jagged, partly-destroyed night, when the wall was built in 1961 to of stolen garments and even small cloths
steeple left as a testimony to the cost of prevent massive emigration to the West.
war, or the Reichstag, whose new glass Continued on the next page
Berlin has so much to offer one can-
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