Passageway West
My Escape From East Germany
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
By nine o’clock I returned to the station and wondered whether I looked suspicious to the men roaming around the station in their leather coats. Being somewhat closer to the border now, the number of Stasi had increased as they intensified their efforts to prevent people like me from crossing. One of them actually approached me to question my presence there alone at this hour. This short stubby little man in his menacing leather overcoat looked at me like he had cornered a thief who had stolen the crown jewels. His look seemed to bore a hole right through my brain as he stared directly into my eyes. I can’t describe the panic that raced through the pit of my stomach as I very casually told him that I planned to visit a friend in Schoeningen.
If he had asked for the name of the friend or her address, I honestly don’t think I would be writing this story today, as I had no answer. It would have been a very quick and nasty trip to the police station, and from there to some prison for interrogation. Fortunately, we both heard the train whistle at the same time and I picked up my bag and headed onto the platform before he could pursue the subject any further. All I could think of was that my freedom had come to an end, and my mother and brother would eventually suffer as well.
As I boarded the train for Schoeningen, I noticed that my interrogator remained behind on the platform, either to harass the next group of passengers, or to simply keep an eye out for anyone looking with a suspicious glint of potential freedom in their eyes. I couldn’t get his mean, chubby face out of my mind as the train gradually pulled out making its way to Schoeningen and my walk through the deadly minefields.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Passageway West vividly describes the authentic memoirs of a young German girl born in the former East Germany just prior to Hitler’s invasion of Poland.
She lived through the nightmare of Hitler’s attempt to decimate her family in World War II, the Russian occupation, and the depravity of East German Secret Police (STASI). It depicts her early indoctrination into the Olympic training program forced upon all promising young athletes living in East Germany at the time.
She describes her dysfunctional family relationships, as her mother, eventually jailed by the STASI for black marketeering, seduces both her boyfriend and her sister’s fiancé. Meanwhile, her father, a German army officer, is engaged in an affair with the wife of a wealthy shipping magnate.
Her Olympic training competition takes her to West Berlin where she first becomes exposed to a world without the insidious Stasi informers. This revelation inspires her to later put her trust in a mercenary who guides her on a treacherous midnight crawl through the minefields and armed watchtowers manned by Russian guards separating East and West Germany.
About the Author
David Bloomfield is an ex-US army officer stationed in Germany between 1957 and 1959, where he gathered the material for this book. Having married the central female character he became thoroughly familiar with the circumstances surrounding the Russian occupation of East Germany and the events leading up to his wife’s escape. Mr. Bloomfield is currently a retired business executive living in Michigan.