World: Happy Childhood

In a desperate attempt to block the few refugees who still manage to make their way into West Berlin despite the Wall, East German officials last week turned to a device used by the Nazis, who in turn borrowed it from the Reds: they offered rewards to child informers who turn in “traitors.”* The East German newspaper. Das Volk, reported with pride that Heidi Mallowitz received a track suit for alerting police to a would-be refugee near the border, and Karin Mundt got the same prize for directing a suspicious stranger “not to the border but to the border guards.” The girls were members of the Young Pioneers, Communist Girl Scouts in the 10-14 age bracket. Vigilant boy pioneers got footballs and sports shirts.

*The original Soviet kid hero of this species was Pavlik Morozov, 12, who has earned immortality in the Soviet Encyclopedia for betraying his father in 1930 during the forced collectivization drive. Two years later, the lad became a Communist martyr when, the story goes, he was assassinated by a band of landowners.