Garton Ash's Loss Of Freedom In The Film East/West

According to Garton Ash, in socialist East Germany “‘Suspicion is everywhere. It strikes in the bar, it lurks in the telephone, it travels with you in the train.”(82) Timothy Garton Ash lived in East Germany to study the city under which the Third Reich had once reigned. Ash moves there in 1978, while East Germany is still under communist rule, and under the fearful atmosphere perpetuated by the Stasi. Ash sets off on a path to meet with his informants, which were all people he had once had contact with, yet, some he barely knew. Ash’s discovery of the how, and why people informed on him demonstrates the way in which communist systems dominate the lives of everyone person living under it. Similarly, in the film East/ West, Russians that had

In the film East/West Marie and Alexei experience this loss of freedom, and privacy, when they are assigned socialist housing, after their sudden entrapment at Odessa. From the moment they arrive, there are people watching them, waiting to inform on them. Marie finds solace in speaking French with a woman named Anesthesia. Later that day Anesthesia is taken away by the NKVD. Ash begins to understand this questionable loyalty the more he speaks with his informants. Ash meets with one of his informants with the code name “Smith,” who confesses to Ash how the Stasi persuaded him to serve as an informant. Ash discovers “He was terrified that they would expel him-- and then what would happen to his wife and child, trapped behind the wall? He went home and discussed it with his wife. They decided that he should cooperate, to prove that he was trustworthy.” (137) People like Smith were forced to inform and spy, because they had no other choice. The Stasi had information on everyone and everything, blackmail and threats proved useful in gaining