Josef Altenburger lived at St Margarethen on the border of Austria Hungary border. During the Second World War he was interned as a prisoner of war at Camp Polk, Louisiana, USA.
Three years after he returned home, he found himself looking at barbed wire again, but this time he was close to home.
This picture gallery is his view of the strict border restrictions brought on by the onset of the Cold War.
Border with a reporter
The entire Austria-Hungary border was secured with at least two barbed wire fences with anti-personnel mines laid between them. Mine specialists , like the one pictured here, worked on the Hungarian side of the fence. Any refugees injured by mines were always returned to Hungary.