Closely watched railroaders

[Willbridge]

In research for my history website I ran into the attached declassified document. It illustrates the East Germans' interest in knowing everything about railroaders who crossed the intra-Germany boundaries. The redactions are items that would identify persons.

Abbreviations:

SED = Socialist Unity Party of Germany (the East German ruling party, a merger of Communists and the left wing of the Social Democrats).
MfS = Ministry for State Security (popularly known as the Stasi).

 

[TrackWalker]

Interesting read.

 

[Willbridge]

Interesting read.

I found this still from Stop Train 349, which portrayed at least one of the Reichsbahn operating crew as being a committed SED member. The train crews on interzone trains were very senior but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Due to the decline of North American railroading in that era, our train crews were very senior, too.