Mary Elise Sarotte

“Fleeing East Germans were to be either caught or “destroyed,” nothing else. Unpleasant details, if needed, could always be manipulated for later reports. Since, for example, shooting to defend one’s own life was always considered acceptable, troops could justify any gunfire by stating that they had believed their lives to be in danger.”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

“According to one analysis of dictatorships, people living under dictators have essentially three choices: to remain loyal, to find some means of exit, or to voice their discontent.50 Denied the possibility of exiting the GDR, the citizens of East Germany found their choices limited to expressing loyalty or voicing discontent, and an increasing number chose the latter in October 1989.”
― Mary Elise Sarotte, The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall