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Construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to separate West and East Germany. Those who died crossing the border included people who perished on land and at sea. — dpa/Bildarchiv
History student Anita Kraetzner-Ebert was doing archive research for an exam back in 2008 when she came across a name that has stayed with her ever since.
The records at Rostock University, in Germany’s former east, listed Lilli Gruner as a student in 1961, but by 1962, her name was crossed out in all the records.
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