"13. Aug. 1961, Elsenstr."

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Picture 17: As in picture 16, these are members of the worker’s militia („Kampfgruppen“). About 7,000 of them helped to build the Wall. State propaganda used this fact as an argument to prove that the building of the Wall was an expression of „the people’s will“. At the end of August, the state leadership organized a huge parade of the worker’s militia to congratulate them and to thank them for their support. In September, a new honorary medal was created for „special merits in the worker’s militia“. In reality, two-thirds of the members of the militia from Potsdam and Berlin had avoided taking part in the wall-building.
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