BERLIN MARCHERS ATTACKED

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26127, 1 June 1950, Page 5

BERLIN MARCHERS ATTACKED

STREET FIGHTING IN HELMSTEDT COMMUNISTS’ SHIRTS AND FLAGS BURNED BERLIN. May 30. inousands of anti-Communists in the British zone town of Helmstedt t?-night attacked West German youths returning from the Communist rally in Berlin, and burned their blue shirts and flags. The police said the trouble began when about 2000 West German youths who had marched in the rally began singing the “Internationale.'’ Citizens of Helmstedt replied by singing “Deutschland Über Alles.” Then the fighting started. The Helmstedt people battered groups of Communist youths about the streets, stripped off their shirts and tore away their flags. They threw the shirts and flags into heaps and set them on fire. The Berlin marchers, who less than ■two days before had been acclaimed by their Communist cohorts in Be-’-lin. appeared bewildered by the violence of the attack. They begged for a truce and said that they would leave the town without their shirts and flags if only they were guaranteed safety, but the citizens blocked off the streets. It is unofficially estimated that 10.000 Weff German youths marched in the East Berlin Whitsun rally Most of them have been returning to the West through Helmstedt.