After World War II, emigration restrictions were imposed by countries in the Eastern Bloc, which consisted of the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. Legal emigration
Konrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire into West Berlin on 15 August 1961, three days after construction began on the Berlin Wall
Rare Soviet "type 2" visa for permanent emigration
A line for the distribution of cooking oil in Bucharest, Romania in May 1986
Sudeten Germans expelled after World War II
Killing of Peter Fechter
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Peter Fechter was an East German bricklayer who became the twenty-seventh known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Fechter was 18 years old when he was shot and killed by East German border guards whil
Fechter's body lying next to the Berlin Wall after being shot in 1962 while trying to escape to the West
Peter Fechter memorial and wreath on the western side of the Berlin Wall, taken in 1984
Peter Fechter memorial cross at Checkpoint Charlie