70 years ago, more than 2,000 people in Mecklenburg lost their homes. In the course of the creation of a restricted zone on the inner-German border, the Stasi assessed them as "politically unreliable", picked them up and resettled them - under the code name Action "Vermin".
by Petra Heissen
Marie-Luise Busse cannot forget this day 70 years ago. At that time she lived with her mother and her two siblings in Vockfey, a village directly behind the dyke on the Elbe. At that time, Marie-Luise's mother ran the farm alone with horses, pigs, cows, chickens and 50 hectares of land. The father did not return from the war and is considered missing.
Suddenly home is in "no man's land"
Surrounded by barbed wire:Suddenly people on the inner-German border are living in a restricted zone.Marie-Luise Busse spent the first twelve years of her life on the Elbe dyke, went to school, had good friends, and felt safe, even when barbed wire fences were suddenly erected in front of the kitchen window in her parents' house in 1952. On May 26, the GDR Council of Ministers passed the "Ordinance on Measures at the Demarcation Line" between the GDR and "the western occupation zones of Germany". The border to the west is to be "consolidated". For this purpose, a five-kilometer-wide exclusion zone, a 550-meter protection strip and a ten-meter-wide control strip are being created along the border. Suddenly Marie Luise Busse's family was living in this "no man's land" of the GDR. Visits are only possible with a permit. There is a curfew at night.
The Busse family has to leave Vockfey within 48 hours
Twelve-year-old Marie-Luise Busse and her family have two days to leave the farm in Vockfey.On the way home from school, Marie-Luise is shortly afterwards asked by the mayor's daughter:"Did you hear that so many people have to leave the village?" Marie-Luise runs home as fast as she can. Her sister, like that she remembers, standing in the yard and crying bitterly, while her mother rides her bike through the village to find out from acquaintances who has to go. It quickly becomes clear:the family has to leave the yard within 48 hours. 53 Farmers from Vockfey will be resettled in one day. Away from the border. You can only take what fits in half a freight train car.
"Vermin" - A lettering burns into your brain
Journey into the unknown:those who were forced to move from Vockfey didn't know where they were going.It's time to say goodbye to friends for those affected. The goods wagons are loaded at the train station in Brahlsdorf. People crowd into the old railway carriages. The officers of the People's Police said it was for "their own safety," recalls Marie-Luise Busse. Nobody knows where to go. Perhaps to Siberia? is the fear. The train keeps stopping and runs until late at night. Marie-Luise can still clearly remember the word "vermin" that was in the box on the freight train. The lettering also burns into her head. For her inconceivable that she should be meant by that.
Arrival in Malchin after the forced resettlement
The train with Marie-Luise's family stops in Malchin. Trucks bring the displaced people to the villages in the area. The family is assigned a room on a farm. 16 square meters with a table and chairs. No room for a bed. They sleep on the floor. The people in the village thought:Those who were forced to move must have done something bad when they were expelled, which is why they were "not exactly kindly received," says Marie-Luise Busse 70 years later. For the rent, the sister in particular had to chop and milk beets every day.
Did denunciations lead to expulsion?
53 farmers were forcibly relocated from Vockfey. Hardly any other place on the border has more people. To this day, Marie-Luise Busse cannot explain why there were so many from her hometown. Who was considered "politically unreliable"? Denunciations also played a role. Marie-Luise suspects that her single mother, who had found a new partner, was blackmailed by someone. She has not been able to find any evidence for this.
The place of childhood is gone forever
The word "vermin" has burned itself into the minds of expellees like Marie-Luise Busse.Where their house stood, directly on the dyke, the abandoned houses were gradually demolished or blown up. In 1973, the rubble was lowered into a 16 meter deep water hole - and found long after the end of the GDR. The place of Marie-Luise's childhood has disappeared. From the salvaged stones of the demolished houses there is now a memorial in the village, a "thinking pyramid". Despite the difficult times, Marie-Luise trained as a veterinary technician, had three children with her husband and now lives in Neubrandenburg. And her sister also went her own way. Her mother later took over her own settlement near Dargun. But she never got over the loss of the farm in Vockfey.
After reunification, the Busse family got their land back
After the fall of the Wall and reunification, those who had been expelled demonstrated. Marie-Luise Busse and her mother were also present at some of these demos. They fought for five years, then the land was returned to them. From then on, they regularly drove back home every year. Marie-Luise Busse and her husband put their caravan on the meadow where the farm used to be and their mother often came with them until she died in 2004. Marie Luise Busse has now passed the property on to her children. They can then decide what to do with it.