At the entrance to the vast space that was earmarked originally for the Chapel of the Apparitions, that's also the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, and the Church of the Holy Trinity, among a host of other services to pilgrims like accommodation and restaurants, is a monument built by the architect J. Carlos Loureiro that opened on August 13, 1994. It contains a piece of the Berlin Wall and reminds one of the messages that the Virgin gave the shepherds in their appearances.
On August 13, 1961, the communist regime in the GDR, headed by Walter Ulbricht, begins construction of its ugliest creation – The Berlin Wall.
It became part of the border between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic from 13 August 1961 to 9 November 1989, separating West Berlin from the eastern part of the city and the territory of the GDR. /p>
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It became one of the most famous symbols of the Cold War. Between 136 and 206 GDR citizens fleeing to the West die trying to cross the Berlin Wall. The site desebg.com recalls the most important facts of her history.
The division of Berlin
After World War II, Berlin was divided between the victorious countries (USSR, USA, Great Britain and France) into four occupation zones. The eastern zone, captured by Soviet troops, subsequently became the capital of the German Democratic Republic.
In the three western zones, control was exercised, respectively, by the occupation authorities of the USA, Great Britain and France. The absence of a physical border between the zones leads to conflict and mass migration of specialists and citizens from East Berlin to the FRG.
On August 13, 1961, in a period of intense opposition and worsening relations between the USSR and the USA, the construction of the wall began. The order for its construction was signed by Walter Ulbricht, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the German United Socialist Party (GESP) and Chairman of the State Council of the GDR.
The then communist leader of the GDR praised the wall with the words: “Here, at the Brandenburg Gate, the working class of the GDR, together with our allies, laid the foundations of peace.”
Building an “iron ring around Berlin”
A document recently discovered in the state archives in Moscow by historian Matthias Uhl of the Institute for German History in Munich sheds light on the decision to build the wall. It is about a transcript discovered in the Soviet archives of a conversation between the then leader of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, and the East German Walter Ulbricht, held on August 1, 1961.
By then the preparations for the construction of the wall had already started. It is understood from the document that Khrushchev sent the Soviet ambassador to Berlin to Walter Ulbricht to convey to him the Soviet leader's intention to build an “iron ring around Berlin”.
The Soviet leader was motivated by the departure of many engineers from the GDR, and measures should be taken against the leakage of personnel.
In the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the accounts of a rapid economic rise of the GDR, as in the late 1940s in Moscow and East Berlin imagined the future, turned out to be a failure. East Germany was unable to catch up with West Germany and realize the propaganda promises of a better life than that of the West.
The economic failure of the GDR
For the economic failure, Ulbricht justified Poland and Bulgaria, which did not fulfill their obligations regarding coal and steel supplies.
Khrushchev then advised the GESP leader to draw up a communique announcing that crossing into West Berlin would be prohibited, that security and checkpoints would be set up, and that crossing the border would only take place with special permits.
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According to the Soviet leader, the citizens of the GDR would be understanding if they were told that the wall was their defense against Western spies.
The existence of the wall effectively violated the post-war agreement of the victorious countries, according to which Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and France had equal rights over the administration of all of Berlin.
The Construction of the Wall
Construction and remodeling of the wall continued from 1962 to 1975. The fully constructed wall consisted of 45,000 concrete blocks 3.6 by 1.5 meters, with a rounded top, the purpose of which was to make escape attempts difficult.
As other protective measures, the construction of various facilities such as wire nets, strip, steel blocks against vehicles, bunkers. East Berlin allocates 12,000 border troops to guard the wall.
However, over 5,000 people managed to escape to the West. The most famous cases are – the mass escape through a 149-meter-long tunnel, a hang-glider flight, breaking through the windows of two neighboring apartments.
Kennedy: I'm a Berliner!
On June 26, 1963, American President Kennedy delivered his famous speech in West Berlin, containing the key phrase: “Ich bin ein Berliner!” ("I'm a Berliner!").
With these words, Kennedy protested the division of Germany and the ominous Berlin Wall.
Reagan urges Gorbachev to tear down the wall
On June 12, 1987, another American president - Ronald Reagan spoke to the citizens of West Berlin the words: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this door! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”. Reagan says this in front of the Brandenburg Gate, near the Berlin Wall. His words were also heard on the other side of the wall controlled by the communists.
On 23 August 1989, Hungary lifted restrictions on its border with Austria, and a large number of refugees from the GDR took advantage of this. In September 1989, GDR leader Erich Honecker resigned.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9, GDR Prime Minister Gunther Schabowski announced the lifting of restrictions on exit from the German Democratic Republic. A large number of East Berliners invaded West Berlin. The dismantling of the citizenship wall begins.
Only a few sections of the wall are preserved in the Potsdamer Platz area, not far from the Spree (East Side Gallery) and Bernauer Strasse.
The Berlin Wall remains perhaps the ugliest symbol of communism to this day. After 1989, it became a kilometer-long “exhibition” of graffiti, including many of them of high artistic value.
After its destruction, fragments of it quickly became an object of trade. Parts of the Berlin Wall were bought in the USA, for example, from the Microsoft Corporation, the headquarters of the CIA and others.
Highlights of this day in history: First steps toward building the Berlin Wall during the Cold War; Cuba's Fidel Castro born; Spain's Cortez captures what's now Mexico City; Director Alfred Hitchcock born; Baseball's Mickey Mantle dies. (Aug. 13)
On 13 August, a crowd of more than 20, 000 people were present at the Cova da Iria. In the morning, the administrator of the district de Vila Nova de Ourem came in his car to the house of Francisco and Jacinta, together with the archpriest of a major town in the surroundings. He pretended that he believed the apparitions and had come for the security of the children. So first he took them together with the archpriest to the presbytery, where the parish priest, in the presence of the administrator, interrogated the children again. After the interrogation, the administrator, declaring that he was convinced now, invited the children to be driven to the place of the apparition for their safety. But instead of bringing them to the Cova da Iria, he turned towards his town (Ourem). When they arrived, the administrator shut them up in a room and declared that they would not get out until they had revealed the secret.
Meanwhile, the people waited at the Cova da Iria in vain for the arrival of the children. Somebody announced that the administrator had kidnapped them.
“I don't know what would have happened if we hadn't heard the clap of thunder. It was much the same as the last time (13 July). Many people were shocked and some of them began to cry out that they would be killed. Everyone began to spread out away from the tree (on which Our Lady already appeared 3 times), but, of course, nobody was killed. After the thunderclap came the flash of lightning, and then we began to see a little cloud, very delicate, very white, which stopped for a few moments over the tree and then rose in the air and disappeared” – by eyewitness Maria Carreira. The majority of the pilgrims confirmed this scene. The people said to each other: “Certainly Our Lady came. What a pity that She could not see the children!”
In the meantime, the children were subjected to uninterrupted interrogations, nine in all. Only on 14 August were they were questioned separately and also examined by a doctor, without any result. Therefore, the administrator decided to use stronger weapons: he put them into the public prison. Jacinta suffered horribly because of the separation from her parents, Francisco was most hurt that he had missed the rendezvous with Our Lady. The prisoners were very good with the children and tried to console them.
Sr. Lucy writes in her memories: “Next, we decided to pray our Rosary. Jacinta took off a medal that she was wearing round her neck, and asked a prisoner to hang it up for her on a nail in the wall. Kneeling before this medal, we began to pray. The prisoners prayed with us … Afterwards, Jacinta, who no longer wept during the interrogations, began sobbing as she thought of her mother. ‘Jacinta,’ I asked, ‘don't you want to offer this sacrifice to Our Lord?’ – ‘Yes I do, but I keep thinking about my mother and I can’t help crying.’ … Suddenly a guard appeared, who in a fearsome voice called out to Jacinta: ‘The oil is boiling now: tell the secret, if you don't want to be burned!’ –
‘I can't.’ –
‘So, you can't, eh? Then I'll make you able to! Come!’
She left immediately, without even saying goodbye. Then Francisco confided to me with boundless joy and peace: ‘If they kill us as they say, we'll soon be in Heaven! How wonderful! Nothing else matters!’ Then, after a moment of silence: ‘May God grant that Jacinta not be afraid. I will say an Ave Maria for her!’”
Shortly after, the guard came to look for Francisco, then Lucy- always the same scenario. The administrator made a third threat: all three of them would boil together! Still he did not obtain the secret or any kind of confession.
The next morning after a final interrogation, the children were conducted back to Fatima. As everyone was very upset at the administrator and also at the parish priest (the children were kidnapped when they left the parish office), the latter, understanding the trickery of the administrator, wrote a public declaration that he had nothing to do with “the odious and sacrilegious act which was committed by the sudden kidnapping of the three children”. Thanks to his public letter, the events of Fatima were published for the first time in the Catholic press.
What happened in Cuba after Fidel Castro left power?
Should the United States maintain its embargo against Cuba begun during the political rule of Fidel Castro?
Fidel Castro(born August 13, 1926, near Birán, Cuba—died November 25, 2016, Cuba) was the political leader of Cuba (1959–2008) who transformed his country into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere. Castro became a symbol of communist revolution in Latin America. He held the title of premier until 1976 and then began a long tenure as president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers. He handed over provisional power in July 2006 because of health problems and formally relinquished the presidency in February 2008.
Castro was born in southeastern Cuba. His father, Ángel Castro y Argiz, an immigrant from Spain, was a fairly prosperous sugarcane farmer in a locality that had long been dominated by estates of the U.S.-owned United Fruit Company. While married to his first wife, Ángel Castro began an affair with one of his servants, Lina Ruz González, whom he later also married. Together they had seven children; Fidel was one of them, and Raúl, who later became his brother’s chief associate in Cuban affairs, was another.
Fidel Castro attended Roman Catholic boarding schools in Santiago de Cuba and then the Catholic high school Belén in Havana, where he proved an accomplished athlete. He was named Havana’s outstanding schoolboy sportsman in 1943–44, and he excelled in track and field (in the high jump and middle-distance running), baseball, basketball, and table tennis. In 1945 he entered the School of Law of the University of Havana, where organized violent gangs sought to advance a mixture of romantic goals, political aims, and personal careers. Castro’s main activity at the university was politics, and in 1947 he joined an abortive attempt by Dominican exiles and Cubans to invade the Dominican Republic and overthrow Gen. Rafael Trujillo. He then took part in urban riots that broke out in Bogotá, Colombia, in April 1948.
After his graduation in 1950, Castro began to practice law and became a member of the reformist Cuban People’s Party (called Ortodoxos). He became their candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives from a Havana district in the elections scheduled for June 1952. In March of that year, however, the former Cuban president, Gen. Fulgencio Batista, overthrew the government of Pres. Carlos Prío Socarrás and canceled the elections.
After legal means failed to dislodge Batista’s new dictatorship, Castro began to organize a rebel force for the task in 1953. On July 26, 1953, he led about 160 men in a suicidal attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba in hopes of sparking a popular uprising. Most of the men were killed, and Castro himself was arrested. After a trial in which he conducted an impassioned defense, he was sentenced by the government to 15 years’ imprisonment. He and his brother Raúl were released in a political amnesty in 1955, and they went to Mexico to continue their campaign against the Batista regime. There Fidel Castro organized Cuban exiles into a revolutionary group called the 26th of July Movement.
On December 2, 1956, Castro and an armed expedition of 81 men landed on the eastern coast of Cuba from the yacht Granma. All of them were killed or captured except Fidel and Raúl Castro, Ernesto (“Che”) Guevara, and nine others, who retreated into the Sierra Maestra to wage guerrilla warfare against the Batista forces. With the help of growing numbers of revolutionary volunteers throughout the island, Fidel Castro’s forces won a string of victories over the Batista government’s demoralized and poorly led armed forces. Castro’s propaganda efforts proved particularly effective, and as internal political support waned and military defeats multiplied, Batista fled the country on January 1, 1959. Castro’s force of 800 guerrillas had defeated the Cuban government’s 30,000-man professional army.
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As the undisputed revolutionary leader, Castro became commander in chief of the armed forces in Cuba’s new provisional government, which had Manuel Urrutia, a moderate liberal, as its president. In February 1959 Castro became premier and thus head of the government. By the time Urrutia was forced to resign in July 1959, Castro had taken effective political power into his own hands.
Castro had come to power with the support of most Cuban city dwellers on the basis of his promises to restore the 1940 constitution, create an honest administration, reinstate full civil and political liberties, and undertake moderate reforms. But once established as Cuba’s leader he began to pursue more radical policies: Cuba’s private commerce and industry were nationalized; sweeping land reforms were instituted; and American businesses and agricultural estates were expropriated. The United States was alienated by these policies and offended by Castro’s fiery new anti-American rhetoric. His trade agreement with the Soviet Union in February 1960 further deepened American distrust. In 1960 most economic ties between Cuba and the United States were severed, and the United States broke diplomatic relations with the island country in January 1961. In April of that year the U.S. government secretly equipped thousands of Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro’s government; their landing at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, however, was crushed by Castro’s armed forces.
American writer Ernest Hemingway and Cuban leader Fidel Castro at Cojímar, Cuba, May 15, 1960.
Cuba also began acquiring weapons from the Soviet Union, which soon became the country’s chief supporter and trade partner. In 1962 the Soviet Union secretly stationed ballistic missiles in Cuba that could deliver nuclear warheads to American cities, and in the ensuing confrontation with the United States, the world came close to a nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its nuclear weapons from Cuba in exchange for a pledge that the United States would withdraw the nuclear-armed missiles it had stationed in Turkey and no longer seek to overthrow Castro’s regime.
In the meantime Castro created a one-party government to exercise dictatorial control over all aspects of Cuba’s political, economic, and cultural life. All political dissent and opposition were ruthlessly suppressed. Many members of the Cuban upper and middle classes felt betrayed by these measures and chose to immigrate to the United States. At the same time, Castro vastly expanded the country’s social services, extending them to all classes of society on an equal basis. Educational and health services were made available to Cubans free of charge, and every citizen was guaranteed employment. The Cuban economy, however, failed to achieve significant growth or to reduce its dependence on the country’s chief export, cane sugar. Economic decision-making power was concentrated in a centralized bureaucracy headed by Castro, who proved to be an inept economic manager. With inefficient industries and a stagnant agriculture, Cuba became increasingly dependent on favourable Soviet trade policies to maintain its modest standard of living in the face of the United States’ continuing trade embargo.
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