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“The Tunnels:” An Evening with Greg Mitchell and Eric Jarosinski

Deutsches Haus at NYU presents a reading by the author Greg Mitchell from his recent nonfiction book The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill, followed by a conversation with acclaimed Germanist and author Eric Jarosinski.

The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill chronicles two harrowing attempts to rescue East Germans via tunnels below the Berlin Wall, the U.S. television networks that financed and filmed them, and the Kennedy administration’s attempt to suppress both films. Drawing on a trove of recently declassified documents from the Stasi archives and the JFK Library, personal papers, and dozens of interviews with many of the key players, award-winning author Greg Mitchell offers a new reckoning with the haunting legacy of the Berlin Wall.

As the story unfolds week by week, sometimes hour by hour, we meet extraordinary characters: the tunneler who had already served four years in the East German gulag; the Stasi informer who betrays the “CBS tunnel”; and the young East Berliner who escapes with her baby, then marries one of the tunnelers. Their astounding triumphs and trials have never reached an American audience. Today, as debate continues over other standing barriers—from those in Ireland and the West Bank to a proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border—Mitchell’s portrait of the politics of compromise and the subversive power of individuals in dire circumstances will resonate widely.

Greg Mitchell is the author of nearly a dozen books, including Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady (a New York Times Notable Book); The Campaign of the Century (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize, hailed by Christopher Hitchens as “enthralling”); and, with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America (“Devastating and persuasive” —Los Angeles Times). He blogs actively about media and politics, has produced several acclaimed film documentaries, and has won numerous awards as the editor of Editor & Publisher.

Eric Jarosinski is a #FailedIntellectual based in New York. A former professor of modern German literature, culture, and critical theory, he recently left academia to devote himself to his post as founding editor of Nein.Quarterly, the Internet’s leading compendium of utopian negation. On Twitter @NeinQuarterly has gained a highly diverse global audience, currently numbering over 100,000 readers in more than 125 countries. Nein. Quarterly also appears in a four-line print format, with its trademark scowl gracing the opinion page of Die Zeit in Germany and the NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands. His first book, Nein. A Manifesto., has been published this fall 2015 in the U.S. (Grove Atlantic), Canada (House of Anansi), Germany (S. Fischer), Italy (Marsilio), the Netherlands (Lebowski), Spain (Anagrama), Finland (Gummerus), the UK, and Australia (Text).

Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to [email protected]. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!

“The Tunnels:” An Evening with Greg Mitchell and Eric Jarosinski is presented in collaboration with Penguin Random House/The Crown Publishing Group.











When: Fri., Oct. 28, 2016 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Where: Deutsches Haus at NYU
42 Washington Mews
212-998-8660
Price: Free
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Deutsches Haus at NYU presents a reading by the author Greg Mitchell from his recent nonfiction book The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill, followed by a conversation with acclaimed Germanist and author Eric Jarosinski.

The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill chronicles two harrowing attempts to rescue East Germans via tunnels below the Berlin Wall, the U.S. television networks that financed and filmed them, and the Kennedy administration’s attempt to suppress both films. Drawing on a trove of recently declassified documents from the Stasi archives and the JFK Library, personal papers, and dozens of interviews with many of the key players, award-winning author Greg Mitchell offers a new reckoning with the haunting legacy of the Berlin Wall.

As the story unfolds week by week, sometimes hour by hour, we meet extraordinary characters: the tunneler who had already served four years in the East German gulag; the Stasi informer who betrays the “CBS tunnel”; and the young East Berliner who escapes with her baby, then marries one of the tunnelers. Their astounding triumphs and trials have never reached an American audience. Today, as debate continues over other standing barriers—from those in Ireland and the West Bank to a proposed wall at the U.S.-Mexico border—Mitchell’s portrait of the politics of compromise and the subversive power of individuals in dire circumstances will resonate widely.

Greg Mitchell is the author of nearly a dozen books, including Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady (a New York Times Notable Book); The Campaign of the Century (winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize, hailed by Christopher Hitchens as “enthralling”); and, with Robert Jay Lifton, Hiroshima in America (“Devastating and persuasive” —Los Angeles Times). He blogs actively about media and politics, has produced several acclaimed film documentaries, and has won numerous awards as the editor of Editor & Publisher.

Eric Jarosinski is a #FailedIntellectual based in New York. A former professor of modern German literature, culture, and critical theory, he recently left academia to devote himself to his post as founding editor of Nein.Quarterly, the Internet’s leading compendium of utopian negation. On Twitter @NeinQuarterly has gained a highly diverse global audience, currently numbering over 100,000 readers in more than 125 countries. Nein. Quarterly also appears in a four-line print format, with its trademark scowl gracing the opinion page of Die Zeit in Germany and the NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands. His first book, Nein. A Manifesto., has been published this fall 2015 in the U.S. (Grove Atlantic), Canada (House of Anansi), Germany (S. Fischer), Italy (Marsilio), the Netherlands (Lebowski), Spain (Anagrama), Finland (Gummerus), the UK, and Australia (Text).

Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to [email protected]. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!

“The Tunnels:” An Evening with Greg Mitchell and Eric Jarosinski is presented in collaboration with Penguin Random House/The Crown Publishing Group.

Buy tickets/get more info now