Experience: I escaped East Berlin in the boot of a car

Experience: I escaped East Berlin in the boot of a car

‘Tonight or never,’ the men helping me said. ‘Meet us in the alley. Eight-thirty’In 1965, I was 19 and living in East Berlin. West Berlin was glamorous. They had ­everything: shoes, cars, food. But we had almost nothing. When bananas were imported once or twice a year, the queues stretched further than I had ever seen.My brother and I were desperate to get out. We’d hang around the checkpoints, hoping to befriend a West Berliner. Occasionally, t…