Word: vopos
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...fake uniforms and, for one highly imaginative venture, an electric minisubmarine of the type used occasionally by cigarette smugglers on the border lakes between Switzerland and Italy. Inside his villa office, which is adorned with zebra skins, African spears, various weapons and the hat of an East German policeman (Vopo) given him by a grateful client, Lenzlinger proudly produced for Kroon purported dossiers on some of his escape exploits...
...Havel River, Erlengrund (one acre) and Fichtenwiese (nine acres), are the sites of some 150 summer houses or cottages belonging to West Berliners. Homeowners can reach their property for a few hours' outing only through a heavy steel-plated door in the Wall. They must summon a Vopo by pressing a black plastic button beside the door. Then they must cross the sandy death strip under the watchful eyes of Vopo sharpshooters and pass through yet another door in a second wall to reach their homes. A German family carrying picnic baskets through this grim gauntlet...
...accessible during four holiday seasons each year under the pass agreements negotiated last September. Young and old lugged huge baskets filled with fruits, candies, coffee, tea, sugar and liquors-all in short, or ersatz, supply in Communist East Germany. On the Western side accumulated intended gifts that the surly Vopo guards would not allow through: books, records, TV equipment, film, photographs of any kind-even color slides of family outings...
...breathe. Again and again the tunnel threatened to cave in because of Berlin's sandy soil. Several times, seepage from underground mains almost forced them to abandon the project. But they kept digging. They installed a ventilation system, used walkie-talkies to warn of the approach of Red Vopo patrols. At the West Berlin entrance to the tunnel they put up a sign that read: "Walter, we're coming," and 70 ft. further along, where the tunnel passed under the Berlin Wall, they erected another: "You are now leaving the French Sector...
...pretending that they and some friends wanted to join the great escape. The "friends" turned out to be Communist cops who had been tipped off by informers. Four of the diggers who had guarded the tunnel entrance managed to get back to West Berlin-after shooting one East German Vopo sergeant...