Volume > Issue > Only Yesterday: Remembering East Germany

Only Yesterday: Remembering East Germany

GUEST COLUMN

By Nancy O. McAdams | March 1990
Nancy O. McAdams is a substitute teacher in the public schools of Princeton, New Jersey.

 

“You want to search my box of Pampers?” I exclaimed.

I couldn’t believe I’d heard the border guard at Checkpoint Charlie correctly. And why was she eying me so suspiciously?

Yet, of course, in April 1988 it was East German security policy to examine all incom­ing vehicles in the search for drugs, books, tapes — anything that might corrupt or con­taminate the East German citizenry.

The guard removed the Pampers box from my car and examined it with a mechanical de­vice. She then selected one of several bags in my trunk to inspect, plus the glove compart­ment in the car, before she felt satisfied I was not transporting any illegal material into East Berlin.

Enjoyed reading this?

READ MORE! REGISTER TODAY

SUBSCRIBE

You May Also Enjoy

The Repaganization of the West

In his recent encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II sees a profound “confusion between…

Letter to the Editor: January-February 1988

The Forms & Scale of Private Property... The Perils of Perfection... Too Agrarian... 'Red Tories' in Canada... (Personalist)... and more

When Old Tics Die Hard (Part II)

The Dutch Reformed Church repudiates the Calvinist understanding of predestination/election.