Word: permitted
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...enough other young men, women and children to turn a trickle of refugees into a torrent, pouring out of every crack they could find in the crumbling Iron Curtain. The first route, through Hungary, has largely shut down since East German officials cut back on exit permits to that country a month ago. Next, East Germans by the thousands planted themselves in the West German embassy in Prague, as Czechoslovakia was the only country to which they were allowed to travel without an exit permit. Those who could slip into Poland converged on Bonn's compound in Warsaw. And when...
...under terms dictated by the Honecker regime, the special refugee trains were required to travel back through East German territory before depositing their human cargo in Bavaria. The face-saving yet ultimately self-defeating scheme was designed to permit authorities to engage in the fiction that they were "expelling" disloyal citizens. In the end, this petty legalism only encouraged more to flee. As the freedom trains slowed along hills and at curves, daring East Germans hopped aboard and joined the flight to the West...
East Germany's decision to permit the mass departures was almost certainly occasioned by the approaching national anniversary. But the larger dilemma remains unresolved. New travel restrictions do not address the root causes of widespread popular disaffection in East Germany. "It's like taking an aspirin for a toothache," said a Western diplomat in Prague. "It may relieve the pain, but it won't fix the problem." As the rioting in Dresden made only too clear, the refugees who had the good luck to act are hardly the only ones who want out. In Leipzig, 10,000 East Germans marched...
Crossing into Czechoslovakia was no problem. But entering Hungary required an East German exit permit they did not have. The Breites had to abandon the car and ford a river under cover of darkness. Sympathetic Czechs led them to a spot on the Ipoly, a shallow Danube tributary, where other East Germans were making the same trek. Olaf carried two children across; Marlies toted the third. On the Hungarian side, their luck held. Though it was 3:30 a.m., a bus happened by. "There were other refugees inside," Marlies recalls. "And we kept picking up people all along the route...
Temple reconstruction was no issue until 1967, when Israel captured the Mount and the Old City. Eager to preserve peace, Israel continues to allow Muslims to administer the site. They permit no Jew or Christian to pray openly on the holy ground, nor will they consider allowing even the simplest synagogue or church. The merest hint of rebuilding the Temple is considered an outrage by the Prophet's followers, who, in the words of an official at Al Aqsa, "will defend the Islamic holy places to the last drop of their blood...