Walled-In

In her memoir Walled-In, J. Elke Ertle recounts growing up in West Berlin, Germany, during the aftermath of World War II, a time when the city is divided into American, British, French, and Soviet occupation zones. Following the war, forty percent of all structures in the city are destroyed, scarcely a building is still standing in the city center, and the population has been reduced to roughly one-half of its prewar level. Daily, thousands of refugees, expelled from the former German territories ceded to Poland and the Soviet Union, flood the city. There is little food or shelter. Many die, but Elke's family survives. In the late forties, when the three Western Allies withdraw the worthless reichsmark and introduce the new deutsche mark, the wartime Allies grow apart. The Soviets denounce the unilateral move, cut off the supply of food and electricity, and block all surface access to West Berlin. There is only enough food to last for thirty-five days and enough coal to continue a lifeline power supply for forty-five days. Blackout, cold, and starvation loom for West Berliners. To counteract the Soviet move, the Western Allies airlift all foodstuffs, coal, and building materials necessary for the population's survival. This unprecedented logistical feat becomes known as the Berlin Airlift and lasts for eleven months. The total distance flown during that period equals 200 trips to the moon.


East-West tensions continue to mount and the city becomes the focus of an escalating Cold War. Khrushchev describes West Berlin as the "testicles of the West." Each time he wants to cause the West some pain, he simply has to squeeze Berlin, he says.


Because the gap between the East German and West German standard of living continues to widen, increasing numbers of East Germans exit westward. By the early 1960s, the exodus leaves the East German economy in danger of complete collapse. To stop the outflow of workers and professionals, the East German government erects barbed wire barriers. Over the next twenty-eight years, these provisional obstructions morph into the Twelve-foot high, ninety-six mile long Berlin Wall, complete with watchtowers, searchlights, and orders to shoot and kill. The Wall splits the city into two, separating families and friends. On June 26, 1963, a half million people gather to hear US President John F. Kennedy bring hope to the citizens of West Berlin. When he proclaims, "Ich bin ein Berliner," Elke is deeply moved and resolves to visit this great man's country some day. 


As an only child of strict parents, J. Elke Ertle is brought up to unquestioning obedience. In her early teens she befriends an American service family and glimpses a very different lifestyle, one that encourages dialogue and mutual acceptance. When she falls in love in her late teens and defies parental authority for the first time, she ignites a parent-daughter conflict that parallels in intensity the Cold War between East and West. She finds herself incarcerated behind walls as impenetrable as the one that divides her city. While the Berlin Wall cripples her physical freedom, the walls her uncompromising parents erect threaten her remaining autonomy. Upon turning twenty-one, she immigrates to the United States.


Interweaving history with her personal experiences, the author takes the reader on a remarkable journey into her closely supervised, yet happy childhood, her youthful disillusionment, and her deliberate, albeit difficult decision to choose freedom.