WESTERN ALLIES POSITION TANKS & INFANTRY AT BERLIN CROSSING GATE
Berlin (JFK+50) On August 23, 1961, the United States, Great Britain and France "pushed tanks and infantry up to the sector border dividing Berlin...in the face of new Communist restrictions on traffic between the East and West parts of the city."
U.S. Army Patton tanks appeared at the Friedrichstrasse* Gate which remains, with the new restrictions, the only place where "all foreigners going into East Berlin" may cross.
According to The Evening Star, the American tanks "looked as if they were aiming their guns directly at the building that houses many East German government offices."
*The Friedrichstrasse Station was known as 'the palace of tears' because it was where Jews boarded on trains headed for concentration camps during the Holocaust.
JFK+50 NOTE
The border between East & West Germany was sealed by the Communists on August 13, 1961 with a small number of crossing points remaining. Foreigners and Allied personnel went through "Checkpoint Charlie."
SOURCES
"Allies Push Troops To Sector Border," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 23, 1961, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
"FriedrichstraBe Station and Palace of Tears," www.dark-tourism.com/
"Checkpoint Charlie"
