  Her little body curled tightly against her father, Peggy playfully lifted her finger to her lips in the inky darkness of the cramped car boot as if to say “Hush”
  Hans-Peter Spitzner couldn’t see the seven-year-old’s gesture, or the smile he guessed went with it, but he could feel the movement through the sweltering air
  It was a huge relief. Because it told him she wasn’t petrified – not like he was
  Just as he’d told her, she was playing a silent game of hide-and-seek as they lay motionless in the boot of a stranger’s car waiting to pass through  on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall
  A cry, a cough or a sneeze and the guards circling the vehicle would fling open the boot
 For Hans-Peter – at best – it would mean separation from his child and prison.  At worst, the border police would open fire indiscriminately
  This was August 1989 and Hans-Peter, on the watchlist of the East German Stasi – the feared secret police – was making a bold bid for freedom in the West with his daughter
  Three months later, on November 9, the Berlin Wall would fall after 28 years dividing the Communist East from the capitalist enclave of West Berlin
  The crumbling 30 years ago next week of that potent symbol of the Cold War was a momentous turning point, allowing jubilant East Berliners to flood the checkpoints
      But Hans-Peter could not have guessed that then. Or that he and Peggy would be the last East Germans to make a covert dash for freedom through 
  All he knew was they needed to make a break, whatever the risk. And so he gambled, travelling to East Berlin and approaching every foreign soldier he saw until he found one ready to smuggle them in their car – a courageous American, Sergeant Erik Yaw
  Peter says: “Living in the German Democratic Republic was like living in a big prison
 Trying to escape was very dangerous but we were desperate.  “I knew they could have shot at us
 I could have been thrown in prison and my daughter placed in a state children’s facility
 My life and my daughter’s were in danger.  “I was a little crazy,” he concedes, “but there was no other way I could see
 I could no longer live this life.”  He recalls: “Everyone I asked said, ‘Sorry, it is too dangerous
’ Erik was my very last chance.  “When he said Yes, I cannot explain how I felt. Could this be true?  “Even in the boot of his car I did not know if I could trust him
 But in that moment he was not a soldier, he was a human who wanted to help.  “He was a man with a very big heart
”  The bond the two men made has lasted down the years.      As recently as last week, Erik, 59, travelled to Berlin to meet Hans-Peter, 65, and Peggy, 37, and they returned to the site where  once stood
  From his home in Arizona, Erik says: “I see them as my family.  “When he asked me to help I was taken aback
  “I paused and it was like a film played in my head of all my life and how lucky I was to be free
  “I knew I could be jailed and deported, maybe kicked out of the army. But in front of me I saw a family
 Peggy was hugging his leg, looking up with puppy eyes.  “And I knew this was an honest man and he had a reason to go
 It took me one minute to say Yes.”  Hans-Peter grew up in Karl-Marx-Stadt – now once again known by its pre-war name of Chemnitz – and as a young adult he began questioning the system of the East Germany Communist Party
  As a teacher, he resented the doctrine he was forced to spout and the continual observation at the back of the classroom
  As someone unwise enough to speak out, he sat firmly on the watchlist of the Stasi, the Ministry for State Security
 His career was blighted.  He says: “In no area of life did you know who to trust
”  The strict rationing also made life hard for him and wife Ingrid.  He recalls: “You couldn’t buy enough food
 For a new car you had to wait 15 years, for a telephone connection in your house, 20 years
” The last straw came when Hans-Peter boycotted rigged elections to nominate trade union members at his school and the Stasi hauled him in for interrogation
      He recalls: “I had to remain seated with a bright lamp shining into my eyes
” The guards even took his scent on a piece of cloth for future “tracking”. Thoughts of escape began to grow
  East Germans were not permitted to travel to West Berlin and travel to other Western countries was restricted
  Desperate people had been trying to cross the Wall since it was built in 1961.Some succeeded but at least 138 were killed in the attempt
   Although an easing of East-West relations had started under Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, no one  had reason to believe the Wall was coming down any time soon
   In August 1989 Ingrid was granted permission to visit an aunt in Austria.  The proviso was that she went alone – keeping family at home as potential hostages was the state’s way of ensuring a resident’s return
  It was while she was away that Hans-Peter took the decision to escape.  He had recently learnt that foreign soldiers were not subjected to the same searches at the Wall and he knew that smuggling himself and Peggy out would be easier without Ingrid
 She would then be free to join them in West Berlin.  Hans-Peter decided it was now or never
 Packing just two bags of documents and clothes, he told Peggy they were going to meet Ingrid
      He drove them to East Berlin where he had three days to find someone to take them across before his wife flew back to East Germany
  The pair lingered, eyeing foreign service personnel.  Keeping Peggy entertained with ice-cream and games, he tried to blend in as just another tourist
  He says: “I approached five or six people the first day, 10 on the second, another five on the third
 French, British, American. they all said that it was too dangerous.  “I had decided I was crazy and stupid – then I saw Erik
”  The US soldier, on leave from his posting in West Germany, happened to be visiting East Berlin for the first time
  He says Hans-Peter’s “Hello” took him by surprise.  “I had been struck by how cold people were here,” he recalls
  “No one was smiling or making eye contact.  “When Hans-Peter said ‘May I ask you for a favour?’ I was surprised
”  After Erik’s agreement, Hans-Peter asked him to follow him to a quiet park. There, they quickly climbed into Erik’s boot
  Hans-Peter says: “Peggy was so cool. She knew she had to be silent and she played along
 I was so proud of her.”   There was one small air hole through which the fugitive father could see  only sky
   Erik recalls: “I played the Pet Shop Boys – I said I would play it until we got to  so they would know to keep silent
      “When we got there it seemed to take for ever.  “The guards looked through the windows at me for any sign
 If I had looked nervous, started to sweat. I knew I had to stay calm, smile, put my faith in Jesus
”  Miraculously, the car wasn’t searched. But it took around 20 to 30 minutes and inside, Hans-Peter had no idea what was unfolding
  He could only concentrate on his breathing and the muffled voices outside speaking English
  “So many thoughts were going through my head,” he says.  “Would Peggy cry? Would Erik be asked to open the boot?  “Could I trust Erik not to tell the guards we were there?  “At one point he reversed – I thought that was it
 I could only hold Peggy in my arms.”  In fact, Erik had driven in the wrong lane at the checkpoint
  It was only when the car started moving again that Hans-Peter dared to hope. Erik drove for 20 minutes into West Berlin before he stopped
  Says Hans-Peter: “I have never been so happy to breathe fresh air, to see the sun and the nice houses
 Now we were in freedom!”  Erik took them to a refugee centre. The pressure now was contacting Ingrid before she flew back from Austria
 Thankfully, Hans-Peter got through.  His wife was shocked but not angry.  Hans-Peter recalls: “She said I was crazy but I had done the right thing
”  He was questioned by the American military but once they were convinced he was no threat the family’s paperwork was processed quickly
  Meanwhile, Erik was interrogated and reprimanded but received no further sanctions
 When Ingrid arrived, Hans-Peter recalls they “fell into each other’s arms”.    The family moved to Idar-Oberstein in West Germany
 and it was there, while eating dinner on November 9, that they saw the TV news reporting the dramatic events from Berlin
  An East German official had prematurely announced opening the border – and that was enough for residents to begin tearing down the Wall
  “We hugged each other and cried and laughed,” recalls Hans-Peter.  Did he then regret taking the risk he had?  “Never,” he says
 “I was happy that no other person had to do what I had done. No one had to be afraid any more
 We were all free.”    Read more of the story in : The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Iain MacGregor, published by Constable
  
