I grew up in Poland when it was a part of the Soviet Bloc. In our understanding, Germans in DDR had better lives than we did. For example, in our college admission system, one could get a few extra points if parents were not educated, but it might play a role in edge situations and could not block qualified applicants from admission. I had no problem getting to the engineering college, which had four candidates for every available spot. About 10% of my colleagues were from DDR. And some had well-educated parents too.

Also, I am curious about in which years religious intolerance took place. I could believe that she might need to go to the church secretly if she worked in the military or a prominent government position. Going to church would get her fired.

I am trying to say that it was a very repressive system, but one has to be very precise when reporting that to be credible.

For example, one of my German friends had a classmate in high school who was a beginner glider pilot. To his bad luck, he lived in Berlin. In one instance, the wind blew him from the planned course, or he lost orientation, but we will never know. He flew close to the West Berlin border and was shot down as a suspected escapee to the West.

And this is an example of the difference between capitalism and socialism. People under socialism wish to escape to capitalism, but socialists would not let them go. If they did, everyone would left, the last turning the lights off.