The Berlin Wall & The Tunnels Beneath It

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On 9 November 1989, the commander of a Berlin Wall border crossing yielded to demands and allowed guards to open the checkpoints. By the end of the day parts of the wall were being chipped off as souvenirs. In this episode, Helena Merriman takes us through the surprise overnight building of the wall which cut neighbourhoods, streets and families in half. She then takes us through the many methods of escape attempted by East Berliners. In particular, we are introduced to Joachim Rudolph who, very unusually, tunnelled back to the East after his escape in order to help others. Helena is the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29, and the author of a book of the same title.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare podcast I'm your host James Rogers and we are dedicated to the history of warfare from the Polion at battles and Cold War confrontations to the Normandy landings and 9-11
0:12.0	Helena Maryman is on the podcast.
0:14.0	She is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary maker.
0:18.0	Helena has worked as a reporter all over the world,
0:20.0	with stints in Jerusalem, Egypt,
0:22.0	she spent time with resistance fighters on the
0:24.7	front line in Libya, and it was her time working in conflict-torn regions with divided peoples
0:30.5	that inspired her to write a new book on a remarkable aspect of history, Cold War
0:36.3	East Berlin and the Berlin Wall. The book is called Tunnel 29 and it's a true story of an extraordinary escape beneath the Berlin Wall.
0:46.7	Helena provides us with the gripping thriller-esque step-by-step details of this daring escape,
0:52.0	but also a broader history of how rapidly the Berlin Wall was
0:56.2	constructed and the political motivations behind it. I know you're going to love this one because well the people who made the HBO hit
1:04.5	series Chernobyl have just bought the rights to it so keep an eye out for that one
1:09.7	go and pop as a five-star review wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy this episode with Helena Maryman. Hi Helena, welcome to the History Hit Warfare Podcast. How you doing today?
1:35.0	Very well, thanks for having me, James.
1:37.0	Not a problem at all. I know you've had a busy summer, you've got the book out.
1:41.0	It must be good to be able to promote the book in person. Have you had many live events now?
1:46.0	Just beginning to. The live one to beginning again, which is great because it's so much more exciting seeing people in 3D, not just in two-dimensional screen versions of themselves.
1:54.7	It is, and just being able to see people's reactions to the book, to be able to sign copies in person.
2:00.3	You know, I've talked to lots of people who have come on this podcast and all my friends have published books during COVID and there's obviously so many worse things that have happened over the last 18 months, but it does take the special aspect of publishing a book out of it so it's great you're able to publish it now
2:14.8	That's true and I'm about to do my first online book signing how does that work I have no idea I'll let you know
2:22.2	I've got visions of you kind of holding one of those
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.