The Berlin Wall

This past week I started reading a historical fiction series about a family living during the 1960s. I haven't ever really studied the 60s in depth, but in reading this book I've learned a lot about the Civil Rights movement, Communism in East Germany and Russia, and the assassination of JFK, among other things.

In the book some members of the family are living in East Berlin during the Communist reign. I didn't know much about what went on there, and this book has got me really interested. The people suffered through so much oppression and had no freedoms. Religions had to be renounced in order to receive decent jobs, and leaving the country, even for a trip, almost never happened. I thought it was kind of coincidental, and also really neat, that today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

While I was in London we went to the National War Museum, and in front of the museum there is an actual piece of the Wall, covered in graffiti that says, "Change Your Life." I thought this was such an optimistic piece. That's all the the people there wanted. Just a change from the oppression they had suffered through. This makes me realize once again how much I love history!

So if you're looking for a good historical fiction series about this era in history, Dean Hughes' "The Hearts of the Children" series is a great one.