Why berlin was divided into four sections

It was followed by waves of arrests and criminal prosecutions resulting in many cases in the death penalty or long prison sentences in forced labour camps. The memorial centre at Sachsenhausen tells the story of one of the biggest concentration camps on German territory from to Show details. Remembering terror and persecution — the documentation centre Topographie des Terrors is one of the most-visited places of remembrance in. Gray DC Bureau. Latest Newscasts. Understanding the Wall: How the Berlin Wall divided a nation.

By Lane Luckie. Updated: Nov. Share on Facebook. Email This Link. Share on Twitter. Share on Pinterest. Share on LinkedIn. Most Read.

Smith County constable, 2 deputies arrested on various charges. Carthage woman avoids prison for sexual relationship with teen. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted Soviet participation in the newly formed United Nations and immediate support from the Soviets in fighting the ongoing war in the Pacific against Japan. Churchill argued for free and fair elections leading to democratic regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland.

Clearly there were some key conflicting interests that needed to be addressed. After much negotiation, the following outcomes of the Yalta Conference emerged :. Soon after the conference it became clear that Stalin had no intension of holding up his end of negotiations. He eventually allowed for elections in Poland, but not before sending in Soviet troops to eliminate any and all opposition to the communist party in control of the provisional government.

A second conference was held from July 17 to August 2, , in Potsdam, Germany. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city.

After a massive Allied airlift in June foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.

By , some 1, East Germans—including many skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals—were leaving every day. Soldiers began the work over the night of August , laying more than miles of barbed wire slightly inside the East Berlin border.

The wire was soon replaced by a six-foot-high, mile-long wall of concrete blocks, complete with guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. Many Berlin residents on that first morning found themselves suddenly cut off from friends or family members in the other half of the city.

Led by their mayor, Willi Brandt, West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, as Brandt criticized Western democracies, particularly the United States, for failing to take a stand against it. President John F. Kennedy had earlier said publicly that the United States could only really help West Berliners and West Germans, and that any kind of action on behalf of East Germans would only result in failure.