Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In a way, I wish significant parts of it had been preserved. We need to remember the Zimmerstraße death zone. We need to remember people like Peter Fechter, who was left to bleed to death in a ditch after being shot during an escape attempt. We can never forget the simple truth that socialism can only be enacted on a large scale through oppression and force upon the governed.
The Wall may have been the largest public symbol of that fact. Its fall was a huge victory, both in idea and act, but schoolchildren need to know that some systems are so cruel, so harsh and so repressive that the risk of death is acceptable if it means escaping.