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operating a private laundry business in a suburb of East Berlin. A couple of years ago, in
order to put greater economic pressure on such private businesses (+ force them to form
larger "People's Factories"), the state passed a law that a factory would now be any
business employing more than 3 people (previously the number had been 11). Thus this
family had to begin paying factory as well as personal taxes; over the years these
taxes were raised to even more pressing levels. Also there are laws restricting the
amount people can pay such private businesses (i.e. price controls to eliminate
friendly assistance from neighbors, make profits impossible) and also restricting
where their goods can be sold. Such economic pressures as this were eventually
supplemented by direct threats that the business would be closed and the people
forced to work in the "people's factory". At this point they fled as refugees.

The second man was a lawyer, had been working as a tax advisor in a town in
East Germany. The state had over the years been collectivising the farms and hand-
workers in his community and thus eliminating his clientele (who must deal then
with the state's tax advisors). As a more imminent personal distress, one of the
sons (there were two sons + wife who fled with him) had been detected writing
unfavorable comments in a private letter to a friend in the western zone - when
this was somehow discovered he was brought up for punishment, given an
alternative of joining the secret police and spying on his schoolmates (really,
this is no fictional horror story - it happened!). With the threats on his son
and the pressure on the father to become a state lawyer (which means joining
the party too), the family fled to West Berlin, will go on to Stuttgart where the
man has a job arranged through friends.

The third and fourth cases were both farmers, fleeing in face of the
pressure to give up their private farms and join collective farms, as I already
mentioned. Here we observed, the stress has been more openly political. They
(the party organization) call meetings in each town, request that the farmers
voluntarily sign up for the party and collectivization (thus they can say in propaganda
that it was voluntary, with the people's support); those who don't sign are then
pressured to sign ("voluntarily" mind you) by city officials, visits from party people,
even loud speakers going through the streets screaming the man's name as a
"friend of Adenauer". If the "voluntary" appeal doesn't work the man is, I think,
then required to join anyway, and of course his stalling makes him the
less popular in the government's eyes. As one side note on the dangers involved
in a refugee's flight to the West - on of these farmers came by train with
his wife. He and his son (with the son's wife and two young children) had
arranged to leave at the same time, travel separately (for greater safety in
smaller numbers), and meet in Berlin. But there is so far no sign of
the son and grandchildren - they were either delayed, or picked up by
the police (it is illegal to flee, try to flee, or even to know of someone's fleeing
without reporting it to the police)! As I realized the torment this couple must