In the shadow of the Berlin Wall

It has been two decades since the fall of the Berlin wall, uniting East and West Germany and symbolizing the end of the Cold War.

Growing up on either side of the infamous wall were two young girls with very different stories.

"There was no freedom of speech, there was no freedom of the press, that's the way it was," said Monika Hohbein-Deegen, who lived in communist East Germany.

Heike Alberts grew up in ally-occupied West Berlin.

"It was an island in a communist sea," said Alberts.

Both women are now professors at UW-Oshkosh. In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the wall being opened, they shared their stories in front of a packed house.

"We played on a swing set, almost bumping into the Berlin Wall," said Alberts. "We thought it was normal."

While for Hohbein-Deegen, sharing her experience in the communist country is often a balancing act.

"The other part that people forget is that it was my life and it was a very normal life," she said. "You can either make it sound too bad, or you can make it sound too positive. To find somewhere in the middle is very difficult."

Among those listening to the two women's stories was a man with one of his one.

"It was the most exciting time of my whole life, period," said Dan Paulick of Oshkosh.

Paulick, 79, is an Army veteran. He was stationed in the American sector of Berlin after World War II and helped supply the city during the Berlin Airlift, years before the wall went up.

"I went back three years ago," said Paulick. "It's so vastly different. The reconstruction and the trees -- when I was there, there were hardly any trees left because of the Berlin bombing."

Three separate stories, sharing a piece of history and the magnitude of this day 20 years ago.

"If it hadn't come I wouldn't be here today," said Hohbein-Deegen.