"Contemporary Witness in Conversation" – Escape Helper Boris Franzke

About this Event

Boris Franzke (born in 1937) was one of the most active escape tunnel builders in Berlin during the early 1960s. He was involved in the construction of no fewer than seven escape tunnels — though in the end, only one of them was successful. In a lecture followed by a discussion, he talks about his time as an escape helper. Despite the failure of many of his tunnel projects, Boris Franzke never lost hope or motivation. On the contrary, he continued digging with persistence, driven above all by the desire to help family and friends reach freedom in West Berlin. Because of this extraordinary commitment, Boris Franzke and his brother Eduard rightly became known in history as the “Franzke Brothers” of the Berlin escape tunnels.