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Originally Posted by mojaveman
You are correct AKV,
Some of the escape stories are incredible. The man who built a hot air baloon at home and flew his family to freedom, the stunt pilot who did the same thing but with an airplane. How about the doctor who swam to Denmark? Another guy did it but with a kayak. The stories go on...
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I think the balloon crossing was made into a movie,
Night Crossing. I remember seeing it as a kid (5th grade? ) - it's still in my mind nearly 30 years later.
NPR has several guests on who were around the wall at the time it came down. It seem that the rapididty of events caught most by surprise. One embassy official called-in to his highers and Washington thinking that folks would cross in an orderly fashon the next day. Apparently the East Germans took the slip of "immediatly" at face value. The embassy official called back "We'd like to correct our estimated time table."