Berlin: Through the Wall

In East Germany, terror began to take a grim new form. Thousands of citizens were being hauled before Schnellverfahren (literally, rapid proceedings, i.e., kangaroo courts) for sentencing to the dozens of new "work rehabilitation camps" springing up across the land. To qualify, the victims needed only to be "work shy" or reluctant to volunteer for the army, or merely generally "injurious to the public welfare." Two workers at a carbide plant in Buna were beaten for failing to enlist for military service, then were hauled before a judge, who noted happily that...

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