Eva Röser in the petrol-tank space of a Lotus Seven

In 1978 Eva Röser, 27 and living in East Berlin, had been in a long-distance relationship for two years with a man from West Germany who owned a Lotus Seven sports car. When she found out she was pregnant, he visited her two days later; it was 7 October 1978. They left her flat at 11 pm and drove to a deserted yard, where Peter removed the rear petrol tank and eased her into the narrow cavity on the rear axle, 95 by 45 by 39 centimetres. He covered her, connected the fuel line to a bottle holding enough fuel to get them over the border, and drove to the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing.

She remembered the guards talking, the mirror they rolled under the car, and passport and customs checks taking perhaps 30 minutes; one cough or sneeze, she knew, would have been enough. Her first sight of West Berlin was a petrol station forecourt. After several interrogations at a refugee facility, she married her boyfriend in West Berlin; they separated shortly after the birth of their son. An East German prosecutor issued a warrant for her 'illegal border crossing' that dated it only to between 5 and 18 October.