The woman who crossed the Berlin Wall hidden in a trunk

Today,. Younger people can hardly imagine that there was a time when the bustling, multicultural German capital was cut in two, separated by a murky concrete wall, which defined the border

Perhaps they can feel something of that historical period if they stand in front of the remains of the Wall at the East Side Gallery, next to the river Spree, where watchtowers once stood and today graffiti artists have transformed the landmark into the largest open-air gallery in the world.

The testimonies of those who experienced the division closely remind us of those years. Like that of Gabrielle Paissoni, who told The Guardian newspaper how she managed, with a daring move, to escape from East Germany, deciding to entrust her life to two strangers.

“Tonight or Never”

Her story begins in 1965, when she was 19 years old. Then, as a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, her dream was to go to the West, where, as she says, “they had everything, while we had almost nothing.” He characteristically remembers the two times a year when bananas were brought to the eastern side of the Wall, the queues that formed. It was something he had never seen before.

She also recounts how she and her siblings used to spend hours around checkpoints, hoping to flank someone from the West who might help them cross.

Sometimes these Westerners they talked to would send them packages, but escape was almost impossible and expensive, as those who had succeeded had paid thousands of marks.

That year he worked in a bookstore frequented by tourists, since anyone visiting the East Side had to spend at least 15 marks. With little to buy, many preferred books and records.

One afternoon in March, two French officers entered the shop. After they had talked with her for a while and she felt that they liked her, she conspiratorially said one sentence to them: “Can you help me?” They looked at her, said “no problem” and left.

Gabrielle recounts how she couldn’t sleep that night, thinking that the two men, however good-natured they may have seemed to her, would forget her and never see them again.

But the next day they came back, approached the counter and whispered “Tonight or never. At half past eight, in the alley behind the shop.”

“hold your breath”

When the customers left, he locked up the store and ran home. Her heart, she describes in the newspaper, was beating so hard that she felt her plan was about to be revealed.

He went up to the attic, took the passport and some jewelry with sentimental value. She told her parents that she was going to the cinema with a friend.

She describes how before she walked through her stepfather’s door, she turned and looked at them sitting at the dinner table, knowing that this might be the last time she would see them.

“I felt torn apart by sadness, guilt, fear,” she describes. But at the same time he also felt a strange numbness. She knew she had to block out all her emotions.

When she reached the alley, the officers were waiting for her. She was shown the trunk, where she would enter to pass the checkpoints undetected.

Before going inside, she told them to take her to her uncle’s house, the one who had managed to escape before the Wall went up.

From there the description is shocking: “I went in, gathering my legs to my chest. I wondered if my brother could fit in there with me.

I felt every pothole in the road, every bump like a vibration. My eyes didn’t even take a moment to get used to the total darkness.

The smell of rubber and exhaust filled my nostrils. I could barely make out some muffled voices from the front seat. Then the car stopped.

More muffled voices. I made out a few words: “First checkpoint, hold your breath.” I imagined the soldiers letting them pass as the car continued on its way. “Second checkpoint, hold your breath.” Again: “Third checkpoint, hold your breath.” Then the car took off again.”

“I imagined them all together at the table”

These were, according to Gabriele, the 15 minutes that changed her life. When she arrived at her uncle’s house, his wife opened the door for her and froze. He hugged her tightly and said: “Do you know what could have happened to you? You could have ended up in a maximum security prison.” He knew he was right. Those caught were tortured or executed.

The next day she sent her parents a telegram with just one word: “I’m sorry.” She wanted to tell them how much she loved them, how much she missed them, but she couldn’t write anything more. He knew the police were watching everything.

For the next 24 years she would not see any of her family. They talked on the phone sometimes, but it was never the same. The holidays and Christmas were the worst, she says: “I imagined them all together at the table, and I was alone in a new world.” “Nostalgia never went away.”

When the Wall came down, Gabrielle was already living in London. He had arrived there a few months after the escape. She got married, had two children, built her life from scratch.

He bought a small house in Hammersmith, where he lives to this day. Now retired, she spends time with her grandchildren and enjoys things she could only dream of once.

Her brother never managed to escape. He remained on the East Side, became a physician, and lived there until his death last August.

Her sisters were among the first to legally travel to London in November 1989, a few weeks after the fall of the Wall. When she saw them get off the plane, she broke down in tears. “It was as if a part of myself was being returned to me,” concludes Gabriele Paissoni with the same emotion, 36 years later.