Główny temat z dnia Poniedziałek, 13. Sierpień 2007

Niestety tłumaczenie tego tekstu na język polski nie jest jeszcze dostępne, dlatego możemy udostępnić Ci wyłącznie wersję w języku: angielski.

The debate about the GDR Order to Fire

Shortly before the 46th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, celebrated today, August 13, the government authority which manages Stasi files has presented a document instructing Stasi agents to shoot without warning even in cases of "border violations involving women and children." Although a similar instruction had already been published in an academic publication ten years ago, the find has triggered a new debate about the GDR's order to fire at escapees attempting to cross the border between East and West Germany, as a result of which hundreds of lives were lost.

Lidové noviny - Czechy

Zbyněk Petráček quotes a passage from the GDR Order to Fire on Escapees on the border between the two Germanies. "'Do not hesitate to use your firearm even against women and children who are attempting to violate the border'. In James Bond films this is called a license to kill. But firstly, her Majesty's agent wouldn't have killed children and secondly, we're not quoting a Bond film but an instruction discovered in Germany that authorised communist border guards to shoot escapees. This is one more reason to describe the former system as criminal... This is a sign for the Czech Republic: when it takes so many years for such a document to come to light in Germany we don't have to worry about the usefulness of an authority for clarifying our communist crimes." (13/08/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, czeski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Historia, » Niemcy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Zbyněk Petráček

El Mundo - Hiszpania

The journalist Laura del Río comments on the impact of the Stasi document's publication. "Its discovery is on the front page of all the German papers because until now public opinion in the Federal State had no idea that such an order could exist in writing. It allows the corroboration of what experts and detractors of the GDR have been accusing the former leaders of for decades: the fact that the regime was without pity in its efforts to stop people moving to the West. The order to shoot did indeed feature in documents previously known, but only as a last resort. According to procedure a bullet was to be fired into the air before shouting 'don't move' and finally, if the fugitive refused to obey, he was to be shot in the legs. But this was forbidden when there were women and children. Hence the impact of the new paragraph [contained in the Stasi document]." (13/08/2007)

» Dalsze informacje (Link zewnętrzny, hiszpański)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Historia, » Niemcy, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Laura del Río

taz - Niemcy

Ralph Bollmann reflects on why this document, the contents of which are nothing new, is causing such a stir: "This poses the question of why the existence or non-existence of this 'Order to Fire' is causing such uproar. There's a remarkable parallel between this and the fruitless search for a 'Führer's order' for the murder of Europe's Jews, which went on for several decades. As incomparable as these two affairs are, in both cases the public, fixated on the search for such a historic document, entertains excessively naïve notions about decision-making processes and chains of command. The alarming thing about apparatus such as the GDR border regime is precisely the insidious interplay of group pressure and rash obedience, rewards and punishment which could not be adequately explained by a single brief instruction - even if it did exist." (13/08/2007)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, niemiecki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Historia, » Niemcy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Ralph Bollmann

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