Deaths at the Berlin Wall

I remember only a single person who died at the Berlin wall. I don't remember his name, but he was trying to jump over and was shot - and remained there screaming for quite some time before he died, then the East German forces retrieved the body and hurried it away. He was very young, I can still picture his face in my mind - but I have no idea who he was.

I think such things are always misrepresented. Look at Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy). The official line is that the wall was drawn between West and East, with all of the Italians moving to the West and all the Slavs to the East. The official line is that, I believe, several dozen were killed trying to flee from the Slavic side to the Italian side of the city.

In fact, the wall was drawn rather haphazardly and thousands of Italians were left on the Slovenian side and vice versa. This is still evident in family names today, though linguistically and culturally "remnants" on both sides of the wall have fully adopted the identities of the majority that surrounds them. Fully adopted to the point that it is offensive to suggest to Fillipa Mancini in Nova Gorica that her heritage might be Italian.

Those killed crossing the wall didn't all die trying to escape communist Yugoslavia. A great number, I believe it's sometimes referenced as a majority - died crossing to visit family members on the other side. Others died returning from visiting family members on the other side. It was far less ideological that they'd have us believe.

Then, when Slovenia joined the EU, the wall came down. The Italians wanted to call it Republic Square or something, as it was before WWII. Slovenians wanted to call it Europe Square. They couldn't agree, so protestors put the wall back up.

Oh Europe... God bless you.