DDR Border Guards Had Orders To Shoot Women And Children

East German border guards had orders to shoot women and children, even without prior warning. A document has surfaced, and it shows how DDR threated "traitors" who wanted to flee to the West. It's an official order to kill women and children...



New document sheds light on shooting orders on inner-German border

11 Aug 2007


A new document has surfaced showing that East German border guards were ordered to shoot women and children trying to flee to West Germany during the height of the Cold War, officials said Saturday. The seven-page order was found by archivists sifting through files of the East German Ministry of State Security or Stasi in the eastern city of Magdeburg, said Andreas Schulze, a spokesman for the office that administers the files.

"The order sanctioned the ruthless use of firearms on the border without prior warning - even against women and children,"

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"Don't hesitate to make use of your weapons, even if women and children are used by the traitors in their attempt to breach the border," according to a section of the document published in the Magdeburger Volkszeitung.

Does anybody miss the good ol' DDR?

They were a pretty evil regime, this is to be expected. Never thought there would be official documents outlining it though.

Actually this has been known for more then 10 years. Reason why this document appears now, is that the "Birthler-Behörde (office that deals with old stasi documents)" is about to get closed and they put this in the media to show, that there's still things about the DDR that need to be researched.

Pretty big thing in the mainstream media here, but as said, known for a long time. It was a bastard regime, sure, but the concept of not sparing anyone is well known - in the last serbian war, soldiers have been told to especially target children, because a dead child means that the mother and father are also "dead".