GDR citizens stood to be executed as they made their vain bids for western freedom

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This is extremely "flowery" language. If it was translated from a German source, that didn't help, either.

  • Germans in the GDR attempted to overthrow the Communist rule on June 17th, 1953. GDR police and Soviet tanks suppressed this uprising. There were deaths and death sentences afterwards.
  • Afterwards, the GDR government prohibited emigration to the FRG. (While it is pretty common that countries limit who can enter, it is a fundamental human right to leave unless there are specific criminal charges pending.) The border was fortified first between the FRG and GDR and then between the GDR and West Berlin (which had a special legal status under Allied law).

I suspect that the quote is a reference to deaths at the Berlin Wall. This makes the use of the word "executed" imprecise under most definitons. They were killed by the GDR government.

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