As you can see by the simulated bullet holes, this monument reminds everyone of the violence that took place here for many years as people tried to escape this country. Many people were shot by the armed guards who were constantly on patrol here, some drowned in the river as they tried to cross and some were killed falling from the cliffs in make-shift hang gliders. The monument portrays a doorway through which you can see Austria or freedom. The iron bars which once barred the doorway have been forced open but the freedom came flooding in rather than people having to go out and leave their homeland. The practice of faith was one of many things which was aggressively discouraged if not totally persecuted and banned. I wonder if faith was more popular in this country during those times? Were more people seeking God as a means of being rescued from their dark circumstances? I have spoken to some nationals who say faith was definately more fervent then. But there was a heavy price to pay for practicing faith so if you wanted it you had to fight for it and cling to it like a life line stretching across a raging river.