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- Exploring the Socialist Paradise: A Glimpse into Eastern Germany's Lost World of Communism (Documentary)
Exploring the Socialist Paradise: A Glimpse into Eastern Germany's Lost World of Communism (Documentary)
Discover the hidden reality of life under communist rule in East Germany through personal testimonies and unseen archives. Delve into the contrast between the claimed socialist paradise and the harsh truth, as showcased by iconic figures like the Sandman puppet. Uncover the day-to-day existence behind the Iron Curtain in this intriguing documentary series.
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Video Transcript
Private images from a lost world of communism in Eastern Europe.
The communists claimed they were building a socialist paradise.
Most people think they created hell on earth.
But what was life really like for the people of Eastern Europe,
effectively imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain?
The answers are sometimes surprising.
While some cannot forget the abnormality of those times,
others feel that they led perfectly ordinary lives.
This series through rarely seen
archive and personal testimony captures the real lives of those living under communist rule.
It was a way of life that disappeared when communism collapsed across eastern Europe
two decades ago. East Germany was socialism's showcase state.
One of its iconic faces was a children's tv puppet called Sandman.
He was designed to send East Germany's children happy to bed and to win their hearts for socialism.
It simply had to reflect.
to reflect life in East Germany.
It had to transmit class consciousness
and feelings of solidarity.
The Sandman was made by people
who used to live under socialism.
They had a vision of socialism and communism
and were happy to spread that vision,
namely the vision of a better world, a more just world.
And East Germany's role model for that better world
was the Sandman's favorite holiday destination,
the Soviet Union.
East Germany was born out of the ruins of the Second World War.
It would emerge from the Soviet zone of occupation
established with the total defeat of Nazi Germany.
Everywhere, symbols of the Soviet Union
and images of its leader, Joseph Stalin,
showed where the real power now lay.
In the summer of 1945, 14-year-old schoolgirl
Erika Riemann went back to her old school
in the company of friends, a day she would never forget.
We saw that Hitler's portrait had been replaced with Stalin's.
So I drew a bow with some lipstick on Stalin's moustache, because when I
When I saw his portrait, I thought he looked sad.
That wasn't a good move.
I never wanted to be an artist again in my whole life.
Erika was sentenced to 10 years in prison,
part of which she spent at the former
Nazi concentration camp at Sachsenhausen.
Here, she was subjected to a mock execution.
We had to go into a shower room.
They told us they would do the same things they had done to the Jews,
that there wouldn't be water coming out of the showers but gas.
That was a very terrifying situation.
There was great panic and then great relief when only warm water came out.
I spent time in the fortress at Torgau.
