DANGER ZONES: Harassment

• Share

DANGER ZONES Harassment

For weeks the Soviet zone Communists have subjected West Berlin to a kind of creeping harassment. Item: by increased red tape at the check points, they slowed down allied truck traffic between West Berlin and West Germany. Item: railway workers, teachers and technicians, who worked in East Berlin but lived in the West sectors, were fired from their jobs. Item: some 4,000 young men & women living in the East zone but studying at West Berlin's universities were told that, unless they gave up their studies, they would lose their identity cards, without which life in divided Berlin is nearly impossible. Item: West Berliners who have vegetable gardens in Soviet territory were denied access to their plots.

Last week the Communists' heaviest blow fell on about 1,000 West Berliners who own businesses—shops, garages, etc. —in East Berlin. One morning, when the owners arrived to open up. they found themselves locked out, their businesses confiscated. "People's Property." read the notices on the doors.