The residents of East Berlin pounded on Carl Slaughs brown Chevrolet van, their jubilant voices shouting as the family slowly inched toward Checkpoint Charlie. The van shook as the crowd jostled against it.
It was almost as if we were part of a soccer game letting out. People just started to move in a certain direction, Slaugh recalled.
Slaugh, now a longtime Iola resident, was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Air Force from 1982 to 1985, and again from 1988 to 1991. He and his family visited East Berlin the day the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
Slaugh videotaped the historic visit, which he played Tuesday night during a presentation, Eyewitness to the Fall, as part of this years Iola Reads program. Slaugh talked briefly about his military career, his time in Germany and Europe, and gave a little history about post-war Germany. He shared the story of when his family first learned the wall between East and West Germany had been opened.
Its now been 30 years since that historic moment.
SLAUGHS family was staying with friends in West Berlin, watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit, when they first heard a radio broadcast that the Berlin Wall had been opened. One of his five children memorialized the event by writing about it in a calendar.
Recognizing the significance of the moment, Slaugh and his wife, Cheryl, decided to take the family into East Berlin.
As Westerners, the family had been able to make several trips into East Berlin before.
After World War II, Germany was divided into four parts under the control of the United States, Great Britain, France and Russia. The U.S., Great Britain and France united their sections, which became West Germany, while Russia maintained East Germany under communist rule.
The capital city, Berlin, also was divided and became West and East Berlin. To prevent East Berlin residents from fleeing the oppressive Russian control, authorities constructed a border overnight in 1961; that border was known as the Berlin Wall. Another border was constructed between West and East Germany.
Access to West Berlin required travel through East Germany, a 109-mile journey by car.
Slaugh said there were three major checkpoints: Alpha at the border between East and West Germany, Bravo at Helmstedt, and Charlie at the border between East and West Berlin. There were six Checkpoint Charlies.
The family visited East Berlin the day the wall first but briefly was opened by mistake, late in the evening. Officials announced the wall would be opened, but there was some confusion about the timeline.
When a radio broadcast announced it would officially open the next day, the family returned.
