Tunnel 29: the True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman was a can’t-put-down read. It chronicled the secretive planning and organization of teams who worked around the clock to bypass the Berlin Wall by digging a tunnel underneath it. This book was so thrilling in describing the planning stages that the actual digging didn’t even start until page 95. The young men were like human moles and were always vigilant about East German infiltrators who risked sabotaging the entire effort. East German spies were crawling all over West Berlin, and loose lips could jeopardize their work. Stasi files show that a spy was indeed among the tunnel’s inner circle yet was never able to learn enough information to betray the escape plans.
The diggers broke through the concrete of a factory floor and then had to shovel through dense clay, sometimes only managing to advance a few centimetres each day. Flooding almost put an end to many weeks of work, until a call to the water company (where the secret plan had to be revealed) saved them from having to abandon their work. The structure of the tunnel was remarkably high tech, with a series of ventilation pipes, lights and carts to wheel out the dirt. They even installed a telephone line so the diggers could communicate with the team on the factory side.
In order for an escape to work, surreptitious plans must be organized on the eastern side of the wall as well. With no telephone or uncensored mail service between the divided city, West Berliners used their ability to cross into the GDR to meet with the future escapees and pass on secret codes to coordinate escape day.
On the evening of the escape 29 people–hence the name of the tunnel–assembled by a tenement building and over the course of a few hours crawled the 135 metres under the wall into West Berlin. Merriman interviewed the diggers and those who escaped. Photos were included that showed the steps of construction both in good times and bad (such as when the tunnel got flooded). The author had access to Stasi files that recorded meetings with the spy and his interviews with his superiors. Most touching among the photos was that one of the escapees and a member of the digging team eventually married, and they remain married today. A couple from East Berlin escaped and they are still together, over sixty years later. The bibliography gave me numerous titles for further reading.