10. The Berlin Wall led to casualties beginning in 1961
In the summer of 1961, tensions escalated between the Soviet Union and the United States over the occupation of Berlin by those countries, along with France and Great Britain. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demanded the western Allies remove their troops from the divided city. Despite protestations from the East Germans and Soviets, there was no intention of walling in their zone of the city, western intelligence was aware of a large build-up of construction materials and barbed wire in the communist-held areas around Berlin. On August 13, East German and Soviet troops closed off East Berlin, blockaded streets, barricaded open areas, and stretched barbed wire across what remained. Troops were positioned with orders to shoot anyone attempting to cross anywhere besides the checkpoints they established. The Berlin Wall, later greatly expanded and fortified, became the symbol of Cold War communist oppression to the western world.
The wall was erected to curb the exodus of East Germans into West Berlin. It did manage to stem the tide, but over the remainder of its existence, more than 5,000 managed to escape, either over or under the wall. Eventually, it became a concrete barrier which ran around an open area, known as the death strip. Armed guards covered the area from towers along the wall, and patrolled the open area in vehicles and on foot, supplemented with dogs. Some areas were mined, with over 50,000 anti-personnel mines deployed. The guards shot to take life. Somewhere between 136 and just over 200 people perished attempting to escape across the open area and the wall itself. Many others were arrested and imprisoned by the East German secret police, known in the west as the Stasi. They too were casualties of the Cold War.
