But the Eat German’s knew that what they lived in was not the way. These people don’t know any other and most likely wouldn’t believe you if told them so.
You would be amazed how many Osties are deeply nostalgic for the GDR...
I once read a book about the Soviet pilot Viktor Belenko, who defected to Japan in his MiG-29. When he was brought to the US and driven around Northern Virginia, he thought that everything he was seeing was a made-up Potemkin Village for his benefit.
It boggled his mind that people could just walk into Safeway and choose from a dozen different kinds of canned beans and walk out again with a full shopping cart for so little money.
I can’t imagine taking a North Korean defector into an ordinary American supermarket with no period of Western acclimation.