Were crossing the border each month. From 1945 until this fill was made about 9 million had been granted Refugee Status in west germany. Berlin, the target area for the strangest invasion of all time, an invasion by its own people. Germans fleeing in the soviet zone. Since 1945 they have granted hill asylum to displaced persons. Since the soviets instigated the policy which slammed shut to borders between the east and the west the only escape left is through berlin itself. These haupeople are pouring in an averageov of 20,000 a month. The City Broadcast with these words, do not leave unless you are in direst need. A zone must 2409 be deprived of honest free thinking germans. We beg you, stay on the soil of your homeland, and still they come. A new nation is growing rapidly within berlin, the nation of the homeless. Here by law all refugees register and ask to be granted sanctuary. Over 70 are there berlin and new ones are continually being added. These are the acceptance camps where each must live and wait while his fate is being decided. It provides shelter during this period of waiting. Faces you see, the voices you hear, the interviews you will witness are the faces and voices and stories of these refugees themselves. Every day familiar people they are from every walk of life, people like you and me. The things that happened to them could happen to us, here but for the grace of god. Here a person looses his name and becomes a number. It is better to become nameless than to risk the safety of someone two has been left behind. A blanket, tin plate and a cup become a persons total earthly belongings. Because 06 desperate lack of housing facilities families have to be separated. Right here. You to sleep in the mens ward. The men from the women. And this is frightening and very lonely. Maria had a pretty little house, a little house of her own. The men are able to carry their own beds to their sleeping quarters. It isnt difficult. A straw pallet to lay on the floor isnt very hefr avy. There is loneliness here too. A man is awkward with a needle. He is wryingiting a letter. He hopes it will protect her when the Police Question her about his escape and hopes she will understand how much he really loves her. They are home sick too but they wont be allowed to be beaten into a hopeless cripple as this man was. His crime, he was arrested because he had no coal to heat his rest rauaurant. Berlin feeds more than 4,000 refugees in the four hours between 6 00 and 8 00 each nier night. And for this they give thanks. A simple thing like children able to sing becomes a wonderful thing. Now listen, all of you have lost everything, your home and your parents and your clothes, all of your Little Friends and your pictures, all of the things you like and your toys, your books, your dolls and your trains. Maybe you had a little kitten and you miss all of that, yes . But one thing you have not lost. You know what i mean . Our good lord and you can never lose him if you really love him. He is always with you even if you dont see him. He watches over you and you need not worry. A mans mind emerges and thinks again when he is allowed to read an uncensored newspaper without fear of arrest. Their play ground is a strip of rubble behinded barbed wire. The west berlin policeman is a boys protect or instead of a threat to run and hide from. There is never a moments privacy, but a boy and his wife with comfort themselves that their baby can be born in a free land. And in the bad homes of loneliness and disappear a woman can seek comfort from a priest of her own faith. At that time more than a Million People had been killed in 45 and 46. Yes. I know. And the catholic lost more than onethird of all clergymen. Where did you go then . Saxony. And you liked it. We had not of a choice. My husband got a job in a repair shop. We bought a little house, two rooms and a small kitchen. Only three weeks ago one day destroyed all of our plans and hopes for the future. We went back to a Birthday Party and there were some other people too. They were very nice but then the men started to talk politics. We could not believe it. They were going to arrest us and we should leave right away. We could not take anything, not even a bag. He said we wouldnt have time to pack. We left within five minutes. And our daughter, we had september hsent her away on vacation. We couldnt take her with us. We could nt wait for her. Is she still there in the russian zone . Yes. She is still there. I see. You must not worry about her. She will be with you again. Remember how many terrible things have happened not om theonly there but everywhere. I was on the road for weeks. We couldnt buy any food. We had to look for it in the houses that were abandoned. We made it and you made it too. There sauis always a way out ev if we dont see it. In the same kitchen food is dispensed for the soul. Not much of a church perhaps, but god is there. The man is free to worship as he pleases. The man is free to preach what is in his heart. There are no toys to play with but small hands are taught how to build something outlife. Angels who this little one is the whole reason a family had to flee. A teacher in a soviet zone offered a prize to a child who offered the best story to things that parents talked about at home. The little rabbit won the prize. Jump little rabbit, jump, jump, jump. Toet note. Poet, scholar, young priest. No just a boy that didnt believe among other things that babies should be trapped into betraying their parents. Why did you leave the russian zone . I am against terror and oppression. My stepfather is a member of the communist party. His idea which is i cannot share, family is my conviction that communism is something we must fight. All refugees must undergo many different screening processes during the waiting period. My father is my friend and my mother, for relief, well some days later, if she wanted to leave, it has to be with my father with condition. And my mother left the russian zone. Before each interview, hours of standing, waiting their turn to explain again and again why they came. You went to school for forestry, why didnt you finish it . I was bun of the best students. But i refused to join the youth organization. They considered me politically unreliable and they wouldnt let me go in for the exam. What exam . They wouldnt talk about it, they only wanted me to be a member of the police. I knew what it meant. The police was a straight military organization. Why does this young couple ask sanctuary in the free world . I had my wife employed effectively. I worked agens a technical desir and she worked as a pipe fitter. I was supposed to go to russian with five of our engineers to supervisor the assembly. They wanted to make a sign of contract for indefinite time. I told them i wouldnt sign. Both of us came to the office. We said, i was to work to walk in the rain an hour and i knew that soviet false labor, they gave us days but i decided to leave that night. As we could not accept the proposal, the most important thing was to get out of the russian zone. These people are politicians or person who played with politics. Because i didnt belong to the party and because i had a plan to escape, i was suddenly drafted to work in a big mining company. Since i had been in the army, they wanted me for a special job. They gave me orders to teach the workers how to shoot. I refused because a friend warned me. And he said the russians would put me under pressure. And they would force me to do it. Are they plain ordinary people like you and me . Our factory nowed amo produc other things, the bolsheviks were using it and because they couldnt find it. They opened it up. And this was based on the phony charge that the bookkeeping of the last five years was absolutely incorrect. It was perfectly ridiculous, my bookkeeping was correct. In order to get it legally, one of the keys or the owner had to be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison or hard labor. Obviously, i would have been the victim. They had decided my books to be incorrect so they were incorrect. I preferred to not take any chance. The next morning i left and arrived in berlin within four days. Could the things that happened to them happen to us . They forced every farmer to deliver a certain amount of grain. I fled because i could not deliver enough and the supervisor came and it was when i came back from mowing on monday. I said, no, i said. I cannot do anything. The electricity is cut off. And besides, i have winter coming up and i have no fodder. And then i said to the supervisor isnt it much simpler if you bring it along and save all of us and present us to siberia. I grabbed his arm, i said you better watch out, maybe you will hang some day, too. He went away. And two hours later, he comes back and gives me letter from the police. And it was a commsomeone smuo s district council. It said i had to arrive there. And he put it on his desk. The commissioner said if i had sent it to the supervisor. Yes, i say, i have sent it. Well, he says, then you are one of those who still hope that the americans come. Take that idea out of your head, he says. You are going to deliver 1 1 2 ton next wednesday. And you better not keep me waiting. That is what he said. And when i got home, it was 6 00, and i said to my wife, what are we going to do now . We have been married for 50 years. For 200 years, the land belonged to my family. I was born here, and i will kill myself before i give up. No, said my wife, no, we will not do that. We will take our clothes and then leave for west berlin. And that is what weve done. Lights out. The moment of darkness dreaded by everyone. The nights are the worst always. Its at night when a woman prays. And a man lies wait until and thinks. Its at night when a person wonders desperately did i say it right . Will they believe me . Will they let me stayy will t s . Will they give me a chance to work and be free . Will i be reunited with my husband. We couldnt. We have been married for 50 years, for 200 years, the land belonged to my family. Here, in the dramapacked little room, the evidence is weighed, the judgment is pronounced. Here, a threeman commission, men elected by the people had the terrible responsibility of deciding thousands of human destinies. No one is sent back. Those who can prove they fled because of personal danger or other pressing reasons are granted the right to work and right to live as individual free people. For the rejected ones, overcrowded permanent camps, objects of a necessary needed charity. But knowing this, still they come. Out of the darkness up into the light. Plain people and honest, who tried patiently to live under a system that in the end did not allow them to live. People whose only crime was an unshakeable belief in the dignity of man. People who held to be true the simple but mighty words of berlins freedom bell. I believe in the sacredness and dignity of an individual. I think that all men derive the right to freedom equally from god. I pledge to resist aggression and tyranny wherever they appear on earth. But this world under god shall have a new birth of freedom. American history tv on cspan3. This week on prime Time Starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Tonight, u. S. Army special forces detachment stationed in berlin, germany, during the cold war. Two teams would remain in the city just to give the russians a hard time. Destroy radio towers like radio stations and power plants. For others who crossed over the yards. Railyards. Wednesday night, plaque Voter Suppression in the 1940s. During the congressional debate, represent louis ludlow said, quote what a travesty. Were sending negroes by the thousands to the firing line to die and fight for freedom while telling them they should have no part and parcel of freedom at home. Thursday night, Andrew Jacksons challenge the even crippled bank of the united states. Already by june of nine 1929d he have been president three months, jackson is writing the only thing that would prevent our liberties from being crushed by the bank and its influence would be to kill the bank itself. And friday night, an interview with senator john mccain on the impact of the war in vietnam. I dont hold a grudge against the north vietnamese. I dont like them. Theres some that i would never want to see again. But at the same time, i was part of a conflict, okay . And i thought they were some of the realist people i ever met in my life and i never want to see again. But there were some that were good people and that were kind to me. So, thats why it was much easier for me to support along with president clinton and others the normalization of relations with our two countries to heal the wounds of war. Watch American History tv this week in prime time. On cspan3. Cspan cities tour takes to you springfield, missouri, on january 6th and 7th, while in springfield, while working with media com, to explore the media history in the birth place. On saturday, on book tv, author jeremy neely talks about the conflict occurrings in the kansas missouri border. In 1815, john brown having left coming back to the territory and he begins a series of raids into western missouri, during which his men will liberate enslaved people from missouri. And help them escape to freedom. In the course of this, theyll skill a number of slave holders. So the notoriety of john brown really grows as part of this struggle that people locally understand is really the beginning of the civil war. Then, sunday january 7th at 2 00 p. M. , on American History tv, we visit the nra National Sport arms museum. Theodore roosevelt was probably the shootingest president. He was an avid hunter. The first thing he did when he left office was organize and go on a very large hunting safari to africa. This particular rifle was prepared specifically for roosevelt. It has the president ial seal engraved on the breach. And of course, roosevelt was famous for the bull moose party. And there is aul