An East German soldier helps a little boy, who was separated from his family

An East German soldier helps a little boy, who was separated from his family by the newly set up Berlin Wall, escape to the west after strict orders to not let anyone pass.

In this unbelievably evocative image from the day the Berlin Wall was officially erected – August 13, 1961 – an East German soldier attempts to help a little boy who has been separated from his parents through the barbed wire. This was incredibly dangerous, given that East German officials had given orders that no one – including children – was to cross the Wall in either direction once it went up. 

The day this photograph was taken and the Wall was erected, German soldiers, armed with machine guns, monitored East German laborers working on the construction. Some sources report some workers cried as they bricked up and barbed off their exit point into West Germany.

Descriptions of the famous photo of the soldier helping the young boy often come with the caption "no one knows what became of him" with regard to the soldier. This is a slightly unsettling pronouncement, given it's also reported that the soldier's commanding officer saw what he did and pulled him out of his unit. Whether he was slapped on the wrist, commended in secret, or shot and killed – no one, aside from the soldier and those closest to him, can know for sure.