Operation Vermin

Memorial stone for the village of Stresow, vacated during the operations
Memorialstone for the former double village Zicherie-Böckwitz (on the border between Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Parts of Böckwitz, located in GDR territory, were torn down in 1952

Operation Vermin (Aktion Ungeziefer) and Operation Consolidation (Betriebskonsolidierung, its Stasi codename), also called Operation Cornflower (Aktion Kornblume) were two large-scale operations by the government of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, GDR) meant to remove "politically unreliable" people from the exclusion zone along the Inner German border.[1] The first operation was executed in June 1952 as “Operation Vermin”, the second one in October 1961 as “Operation Consolidation” and “Operation Cornflower”.

  1. ^ Heiner Emde: Vergessene Opfer an der Grenze. In: Focus Online, 22 February 1993