LAST 10 meters of Iron Curtain in Slovakia
Posted by: 
Rikitan
N 48° 12.646 E 016° 58.096
33U E 646221 N 5341599
Last few meters of barbed wire fence on western Slovakian border with Austria - to keep us always remembering the Iron Curtain and our lives without freedom.
Waymark Code: WMAGEP
Location: Bratislavský kraj, Slovakia
Date Posted: 01/12/2011
Views: 64
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
Winston Churchill, March 5th 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri
The Iron Curtain (Železná opona, Eiserner Vorhang, Zhelezniy zanaves) is a term referring to the boundary which divided Europe into two separate areas of political influence and ideology from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War in 1989. Many of the states were members of the Soviet Union itself (the Soviet Socialist Republics), while the neighboring countries of the Eastern bloc were ruled by pro-Soviet governments, kept in place by the threat of military force.
The Iron Curtain, built during 1948-53 as a system of barbed wire fences in military zones, served to keep people in the Eastern block and information out.
After February 1948 the Czechoslovak-Austrian border became a dividing line of two politically and economically opposed configuration of the Western states and the World Socialist „Fellowship“, although Austria up to 1955 was under the „supervision“ of the Soviet Union.
The following period was called the Cold War, which marked the lives of people living in the frontier area. These villages were treated in a different way. Nobody could enter the zone except for the villagers and a few people with a special permit for the border zone. Devinska Nova Ves was a seat of Frontier Guard (Police).
Along the dividing line of the two political systems, in 1950, border barriers were built, as a part of the huge Iron Curtain. The area behind the barriers reaching to the frontier zone was pronounced forbidden area. The Iron Curtain was along the whole our state boundary with the western world. It was 2,2m high, even 3m at some points. It was renewed every 4-5 years, because the durability of the barbed wire was „settled“ for this period. The guards were on duty 24 hours a day. In particular areas, emergency unit had to intervene on a given signal. The guards of the Frontier police were supposed to shoot at people after warning.
Thousands of people died in the attempt to cross the border illegally, but a few hundreds managed to run away. The Iron Curtain fell in december 1989 and the Morava area was accessible to people again.
In the Museum of Iron Curtain you can see a „memory“ of the barbed wire (10m long) and an information board on one of the military bunkers in Devinska Nova Ves, installed in 2000. Please, take this opportunity to commemorate victims of communism at coordinates in the header of this waymark. The Memorial for the Irion Curtain Victims was unveiled in 2006 under the Devin Castle Rock at the confluence of the Danube and the Morava.
Related links: [Web Link]
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parking coordinates: N 48° 12.333 E 016° 58.224
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