Tunnel 29: Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall
Details
Anyone else remember watching the wall come down on TV as a kid? So cool! I've been hearing good things about this one for years, so let's check it out.
Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall
Author: Helena Merriman
Length: 352 pages
Rating: 4.5 Goodreads
Summary: In September 1961, at the height of the Cold War, 22-year-old Joachim Rudolph escaped from East Germany, one of the world's most brutal regimes. He'd risked everything to do it. Then, a few months later, working with a group of students, he picked up a spade... and tunneled back in.
The goal was to tunnel into the East to help people escape. They spend months digging, hauling up carts of dirt in a tunnel ventilated by stove pipes. But the odds are against them: a Stasi agent infiltrates their group and on their first attempt, and dozens of escapees and some of the diggers are arrested and imprisoned. Despite the risk of prison and death, a month later, Joachim and the other try again and hit more bad luck: the tunnel springs a leak. After several attempts, run-ins with a spy and secret police, and some unlikely financial aid from an American TV network, they finally break through into the East, and free 29 people.
We will meet at 7pm on Tuesday, September 29 at:
TBD
I will be there early- I have short brown hair and glasses, and will be carrying a copy of the book.