East German soilder helps a little boy sneak across the Berlin wall, August 1961.
This is a photograph of an East German soldier helping a little boy cross the newly erected Berlin Wall the day it was built, August 13, 1961. In the chaos of the day the boy was somehow found on the wrong side of the wall from his family. Despite being given orders by the East German government to let no one pass into East Berlin, the soldier helped the boy sneak through the barbwire. It was reported that the soldier was caught doing this benevolent deed by his superior officer, who removed the soldier from his unit. Hopefully his punishment was minor and he wasn’t imprisoned or shot. Descriptions of this photo come with the caveat that “no one knows what became of him.”
