Do you know the story behind this famous photograph?
If you enjoy history and have a special interest in World War II and what happened shortly after the conflict ended, then chances are you have come across the following image somewhere. As you can see, it basically shows a soldier helping a little boy through a barbed wire fence. However, do you know the historical context of photography and what exactly does it show?
According to the folks at Rare Historical Photos, the image shows an East German soldier helping a boy move from the western to the eastern side of Berlin shortly after the creation of the Berlin Wall. As we told in an earlier article here from Mega Curioso - which you can check through this link - the construction of the wall began at night between August 12 and 13, 1961 and, in the morning, the makeshift barrier that prevented the passage from one part to the other had already been installed.
Human barrier
In fact, the construction of the wall itself did not happen overnight. It occurred over several years, with the constant addition of reinforcements, concrete blocks and slabs, and observation towers. In total, there were more than 300 of them spread over the 155 kilometers of barriers that surrounded the three western sectors of the city, plus the more than 40 kilometers that divided the western part of the east, and all were controlled by over 11, 000. soldiers.
However, on the night of August 13, the beginning of the wall's construction consisted of installing barricades and barbed wire fences like the one you saw in the picture. And the whole thing was done so suddenly that many people who for one reason or another were on one side of town simply didn't have time to cross. As a result, entire families were eventually separated.
In the specific case of the little boy in the picture, according to information available at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum - a museum located at the most famous checkpoint in the Berlin Wall - he was with his father on the western side of the city visiting some relatives, while the rest of the family remained on the eastern side. But as the ban on crossing from one sector to another came overnight, the boy was separated from his family.
However, the boy's father, thinking that it would be better for the child to grow up with his mother, convinced his son to walk over to the fence and ask the soldier to let him go to the other side. The image captures the moment when the visibly concerned military man - since he had certainly been given strict orders not to allow anyone to cross the barrier - makes his way through the barbed wire before lifting the boy and securing him to the other's. side.
The young soldier was eventually caught by his superior while helping the child, and it is common to find on the Internet information that nobody knows what happened to the military after that. However, while there are hints that he was seriously punished - and even capital punished for his actions - the boy was removed from his unit and rebuked, but not arrested, let alone shot to death.
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