About A Cold War Museum am Checkpoint Charlie

On the Deutsche Welle website an article titled “East-Westdivide remains at Checkpoint Charlie” (08.08.12) by Melanie Sevcenko. The article dealt with the attempt to create a new museum near the area that was Checkpoint Charlie at the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse in Berlin. The new museum would be called the Cold War Museum.

The interesting thing about the museum is that it would reflect the Cold War from both sides of the Berlin Wall. It seems that there is not enough to address that the game that was played for over 40 years since the end of World War II by the two sides.  This is an interesting concept that I for one would like to see become a reality. As a US Soldier during the Cold War, I would like to know what my counterparts were doing because from what we were told they certainly knew what we were doing. However, very little info ever made it back to the line troops on the day-to-day life of a Soviet or East German or Warsaw Pact soldier. I am more than certain someone knew. So it would be interesting to see what they had to deal with and how they dealt with it.

 

So from a selfish point of view a Cold War Museum is a great idea. Then again, what about those that were oppressed by the Soviets and their puppet regimes? Do they want to be reminded of those dark days when neighbors spied on neighbors or worse still when family member spied on family member?  Is that a memory that anyone wants to relive? It remains a very harsh reality for many, I know of one individual, personally, that is still haunted by the actions of the former DDR.

I hope that this dilemma does not become the start of another Cold War. Then again, wars have started over lesser things than this. It will be interesting to see how it all plays itself out.