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Tours of escape tunnels mark Berlin Wall historyBy Kirsten GrieshaberAssociated PressBERLINWhen the East German government built the Berlin Wall n 1961 to prevent its citizens Tom leaving, the regime failed :o account for the ingenuity ind creativity of those willing ;o risk anything to escape the communist system.From the 1960s to the 1970s, Hasso Herschel helped dozens escape from the East to the West through the secret tunnels, some of which he dugwith his own hands.“This was the best thing I ever did in my whole life,” the 74-year-old retiree said recently. • /Herschel regularly escorts groups through the hiddenside the tunnel, there was no time left for my fears”Twenty-nine people fled through that shaft, making it one of the most successful tunnel projects at the time.While some tunnels were just less than 100 feet long, others were up to 557 feet in length.Some were like small tubes, barely big enough to crawlIF YOU GOTours of Berlin's Escape Tunnels: www.berliner-unterwelten.de or 011-49-30-499-105-17. Tour M is offered in English on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. and in German on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m.Adults, $17.75; youths. $13.ed 71 tunnel projects and 20 percent of those were success-bunker is dim and fluorescent paint from the Cold War-era glows on the walls.loiter on, the groups move on to Bemauer Strasse in Mitte neighborhood, one of the most popular spots for tunnel diggers at the time, due to the high amount of clay in the soil.At least 15 attempts were made at Bemauer Strasse to dig a path to freedom through
Newspaper Details
Janesville Gazette
Janesville, Wisconsin, US
Sun, Nov 08, 2009
Page 27
Full Page
Clipped by
King C.
WA, USA 15 Oct 2019
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