A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

Dusk had settled in Berlin as Fraulein Meuller walked outside in the fields, watching the sun set over the western hills, trying to keep her mind from going back to the terror that she felt and the nightmare that she had previously endured.

Herr Goebel, a man of about 50, sighed as he walked towards her, knowing full well that he could not talk her out of anything. She had come to them some few months ago after miraculously making it over the wall and while this was good, she was not happy.

"I knew I would find you out here, Elsa”

"Ja" she replied to him quietly.

"Elsa, what you are thinking of doing, it's impossible! You just got to safety 3 months ago!"

"I know, but how can I leave him there, all alone? He's my brother!". She lowered her head looking towards the ground, knowing full well, how much of an impossibility it was for her to go back, past the wall to East Berlin, but she had promised her parents that she would take care of her little brother.

“Elsa, you don't actually know if he is alone. You told me that, he was with your parents when you saw them.”

Of course, Herr Goebel knew of the dangers and how unlikely that sounded. The Stasi were not known for mercy, but without actually knowing anything at all, both he and Elsa were left to the mercies of their own imaginations as they clashed with the cold hard reality that lay behind that wall to the east.

3 months prior, the Mueller family had left their residence at night, being cautious to not alert any patrols. Elsa knew what was happening but her little brother Ernst didn't. 

"We're going on an adventure!", their mother had said, trying to sound cheerful through a grimace. "We're like , spies! So we have to be really quiet!"

Elsa looked at her little brother, knowing that the situation was far more serious than a children's game, but went along with her parents explanation. Ernst put a single index finger to his lips and was as quiet as church mice across a wooden floor while the family crept through small pathways to an old parsonage.

As they arrived, a man of the cloth met them and opened the large wooden door for them, blessing them as they passed him. Elsa looked at him, noting how his eyes seemed to dart towards the road, the houses and other buildings like a deer that knew it was being hunted. Elsa shivered but tried to keep that to herself so that her brother would not be too alarmed.

The Mueller family settled into the church pews with other people for an evening service, or at least, that was the official story, so it wouldn't alert the Stasi. 

Elsa remembered hearing about the Stasi, who would bang on the doors and arrest whole families in the middle of the night and taken away. The morning after, the records of the families were erased altogether as if they had never existed. When she was 9 years old, she woke up to the sound of that same banging and yelling coming from nextdoor. The yelling got louder and louder that time, then the unmistakable rattling of gunfire from machine gun, then a scream which was cut short.

Elsa didn't know the neighbors well, but by morning, the house nextdoor was barren and lifeless. She was she remembered talking with her neighbors once...but she had to totally forget them.

"Elsa?"

A touch from her father brought her back to the present. The doors of the church had closed and a cross bar was put in place and the pastor came to the front of the altar. At first, it looked as if he would begin the service,.or give a homily, but instead, her family, along with other families were led from the sanctuary to a small staircase leading downwards and they eventually came to an underground water way where a man with a small boat was waiting. 

The boatman indicated that he could only take 2 passengers at once across the border, so most of the families elected to have the children go first.

"Elsa, Ernst", Herr Meuller started. "Here's what will happen. When it is your turn, you get on the little boat and you will go across first. We will follow a little bit later."

Ernst bit his lip and his eyes began to well up. "But Papa...."

"Ernst", his Papa said trying to keep his own lips from trembling. "It will be fine. Your sister will be with you and, when we arrive on the other side, we will meet with our friends. All we.ask is that you be strong for us and your sister, okay?"

Ernst looked downwards as a single tear left his face and landed on.the ground.

Elsa and Ernst waited for their turn for about an hour when the pastor came back down the staircase and alerted the families that the Stasi were approaching the church and they might have only a little time for one more boat trip.

Elsa and Ernst boarded the little boat just as Herr Meuller had told them while the remaining families went back up the stairs so as not to arouse any suspicions. The boat was already heading down the water way but the siblings could still see their parents as they ascended the staircase. 

All of a sudden, Ernst jumped from the the boat and swam back to the shoreline and he ran up the stairs to met his parents as they looked on in horror watching the boat take their daughter across the border while their son remained.

Elsa stood on the boat, helplessly as the boat continued it's journey . She knew that if the Stasi saw a boy that was all wet in a little church, it might be suspicious. Unfortunately, all she could do is stay on the boat until it crossed the border.

Now, several months later, she continued to wonder about her little brother and her mother and father.

Herr Goebel and his wife were family friends of the Mueller’s and gladly took Elsa into their home but the struggled to any tidbit of news at all across that awful wall.

He stood beside Elsa for a time before trying to say anything more and after a bit of thought, he spoke to her.

“My Cousin Helmut often travels through a checkpoint. I could ask him if he can glean any information. He knows them also.  

He can't get them out because the truck would be searched thoroughly.”

Elsa turned to Herr Goebel, trying hard to hide her tears, and trying desperately to banish the thought of her family spending time in the dreaded Hohenschönhausen, the prison and torture chamber for “the enemies of the state”.

Elsa collapsed into Herr Goebel’s arms thanking him profusely.

The next week after Herr Goebel had spoken with Cousin Helmut, Elsa secretly got on Helmut's truck,.which was leaving the bright colors of West Berlin and headed east towards the checkpoint.

Herr Goebel knew what she had done when he could not find her and said a prayer for them all while also looking to the horrid wall.