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Stasi Ordered to Shoot First

Posted Aug 12, 07 3:08 PM CDT in World 

(Newser) – During the Cold War, East German border police were ordered to shoot all attempted defectors, a newly discovered Stasi document confirms. “Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of,” the 1973 order commands.

The order represents the most robust proof of the Stasi’s shoot-to-kill policy, the BBC reports, contradicting both official policy and statements by former GDR leaders, who continue to deny it. A victims’ organization recently claimed that at least 1,245 East Germans were killed trying to escape the country, half of them after the 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall.

Source BBC

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WEST GERMANY. West Berlin. 1983. Brandenburg Gate. (NYC44360)   (Magnum Photos)
End Of The Berlin Wall   (Archive Photos)
WEST GERMANY. West Berlin. 1965. West Germans looking over the Berlin Wall to East Berlin. (NYC30381)   (Magnum Photos)
Tourists walk along what was once part of the wall separating East from West Berlin Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007 in Berlin. Since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the concrete on this section of the wall,...   (Associated Press)
Famous Russian and American cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich plays in front of the Berlin wall on Nov. 11, 1989. Rostropovich has died, his spokeswoman Natalia Dollezhal said Friday April 27,...   (Associated Press)
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