Renate Witte

The Price of Freedom Renate Witte

This is the story of Renate who grew up behind the Iron Curtain near Potsdam. Political suppression forced her to leave East Germany. She fled together with her husband in the trunk of a car. The escape was successful but she lost everything and she could not take her daughter with her because of the danger ending up in prison or getting shot. The daughter had to stay with her grandparents. The beginning in the West was very difficult; she lost her husband to another woman and was not able to find employment in her movie profession as location manager and production assistant. Out of options she thought everything would end right here. But she found new love and also a new job. Her friend, a lawyer, could help her daughter come to the West. Now it looked like everything would be OK but the East German security police still followed her even in West Berlin. At a vacation in the USA they decided to change their lives again and bought a restaurant in the Antelope Valley in California. The daughter came with them. But she was still angry with her mother because she left her with the grandparents. The daughter married and has three kids and adopted three more, but she broke the connection with her mother. all tries to mend the connection were in vain. In the end she was free but she practically lost her Daughter. Was the price to high?