Margot’s job was to make sure that East German children grew up to be loyal, obedient citizens—or else. Part of her plan was to make sure that the kids had reliable homes to grow up in. Her definition of reliability was, of course, the degree to which parents were in line with the reigning communist ideology. It only took applying for a visa to leave East Germany, even for just a trip, to mark someone as unreliable or downright hostile to the GDR, for example.
