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#Tunnel29 �� Helena Merriman
#hodderandstoughton
#jonathanball

In the winter of 1945 a young boy, Joachim Rudolph, fled the invading Russian forces on the East German countryside. What remained of his family, settled in Soviet controlled East Berlin. At 11 years of age, he became involved in smuggling operations between East and West Berlin, but nothing could prepare him, or the other residents of East Berlin, for what awaited them at first light of the morning of 13 August 1961: overnight the border between East and West were closed with barbed wire and armed guards; parents and children were separated, as were husband and wives. Stranger and more terrifying than any fiction. There were many stories of escapes �� some ending in tragedy and some completely bizarre, like that of 77-year-old Frieda Schulze. Epic photographic evidence, existing to this day, shows her hanging upside down from the upstairs window of her house that formed part of the artificial border; East German soldiers trying to pull her back by her feet and West Germans trying to pull her to safety in the West.

During the night of 28 September 1961 Joachim Rudolph escaped to West Berlin. After mere months of freedom, he started digging a tunnel back to the East to provide an escape route for others. The tunnel originated in the basement of a house in Bernauer Strasse in the West and would end in the basement of another house in the East: 7 Schönholzer Strasse, 135m underground. It would consume 4 months of his life and cost many lives. This is his story. But not only his: there was also Siegfried Uhse, the young hairdresser who became a Stasi spy after being blackmailed about his homosexuality; it is also the story of The House of One Thousand Eyes, Walter Ulbrecht and Erich Mielke; Reuven Frank and his team at NBC who were secretly filming the progress of the tunnel and the planned escape (the film aired on 10 December 1962 after initially being banned); and the tragedy of Peter Fechter’s death. This young East German bricklayer merely wanted to see how close he could get to the wall. Young and reckless. He was shot by East German guards and lie dying, calling for help, next to the wall; the East refusing to help and the West not daring to, for fear of sparking World War Three.

The author interviewed survivors, including Joachim Rudolph, and searched through thousands of pages of Stasi documents to create the hit BBC Radio 4 podcast, ‘Tunnel 29��. This book is the result thereof. It narrates a powerful story of human compassion and dedication: Joachim had no-one in the East he needed to help escape; he could have walked away and carried on with his new life in the West, but he chose to take on the might of the East in challenging a wall of 96 miles long, fortified by armed patrols, trip wires, explosives and watchtowers. His name deserves to be known. And remembered. Although nonfiction, the book reads like an excellent spy novel, set during the Cold War. The tension remains palpable, and the reality of the text is confirmed by photographs and detailed accounts as to what happened to all the mayor role players after the wall came down in November 1989. It is recommended reading for lovers of history and readers interested in the Cold War and deserves 5 stars.

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#Uitdieperdsebek