Escape Soviet East Berlin in VR
A new YouTube show and virtual reality experience transports people to the streets of Berlin to relive the sudden construction of The Berlin Wall in 1961 - and its toppling 30 years ago this week.
Viewers get to stand in the middle of the so-called death strip that separated east and west, and sense the wall's immense scale.
The show's director, Joff Wilson.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR JOFF WILSON, SAYING:
"I think it's really important that the young people, that we get young people to engage in this story because there is a bigger story around the Berlin Wall and putting up walls and closing borders and all of that kind of thing which feels very pertinent in today's world and in Europe particularly and across the world, in fact. But I think we want people to experience it not just as a historic document but as something they can take and have an emotional impact as well."
One particular scene depicts the digging of a tunnel from a building in West Berlin to the East, through which 57 people escaped over two nights.
The grandfather of 20-year-old student Anton Von Keussler helped build that very tunnel.
(SOUNDBITE) (German) 20-YEAR-OLD STUDENT, WHOSE GRANDFATHER BUILT THE TUNNEL, ANTON VON KEUSSLER, SAYING:
"The most interesting part for me was to see how deep the tunnel was as I stood right in front of it, that the hole was so deep, a lot deeper than I had ever imagined, and that the tunnel was so narrow and long. It must have been so much work to dig.''
At least 138 people were killed trying to escape to the West.
Many who were captured ended up in jail.
