EAST GERMANS STILL FLEEING TO WEST

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30892, 27 October 1965, Page 25

EAST GERMANS STILL FLEEING TO WEST

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter)

WEST BERLIN.

East Germans planning to flee to West Berlin have at best a fifty-fifty chance of succeeding, according to reliable sources.

Ever since the Berlin wall, built in August 1961, cut off the two parts of the city, the refugee stream has steadily dwindled and now stands at about 250 a month.

Of these about 200 arrive by “normal” means, however. They are pensioners allowed to travel to West Berlin for a visit who decided not to return, or Germans from territories now under Polish or Soviet rule who have at long last obtained exit permits. The latter often arrive with children who speak no word of German. Of the rest, most come by various escape routes which are a closely-guarded secret kept by the authorities and the Berlin press alike. Only a handful now make the daring and dangerous attempt to cross the barbed wire fences and wall, crawl past heavily-armed and trig-ger-happy guards, or swim across border rivers and canals, where they become easy targets for armed guards as well as risking serious injury from underwater obstacles.

City officials recently released two sets of figures from which some conclusions can be drawn. They said that since the wall was built on August 13, 1961, a total of 24,488 East Germans had applied for political asylum in West Berlin’s main refugee camp in the American sector district of Marienfelde. The other figure was that 3479 East Germans had managed to escape “across the wall,” including 433 uniformed border guards. LIVES RISKED

The difference between these two sets of figures appears to be that the larger one includes those East Berliners who happened to have stayed overnight in West Berlin on the week-end of August 12/13, 1961, and all the others who came to West Berlin with official and unofficial papers, while the smaller figure relates only to those who actually risked their lives by braving the formidable

border fortifications. The only escapes which the City Government allows the West Berlin police to announce immediately are those of border guards. It is thought that their flight is so obvious that no harm is done by revealing it. The border guards, indeed, have the best chance of escaping. They know the area and the obstacles. They have time to plan ahead for a suitable time and place. If the worst happens they also have weapons with which to defend themselves against their own comrades. But it is rare that a border guard at such an exposed post as the Brandenburg Gate, where wooden viewing platforms have been set up on either side for tourists, jumps up and scales the wall within sight of dozens of people. TOURISTS CHEERED

That has only happened once—in July this year. It was done by a 22-year-old corporal who calculated correctly that no shots would be fired at him while the Communist tourists on one side and the West German and foreign tourists on the other photographed each other. But only the Western tourists cheered and applauded as he ran hard for cover behind a nearby tree. Most escapes are now made by crawling through the shrubs and woods on the perimeter of West Berlin. There, the border fortifications include ten-foot high barbed wire fences, three or four behind one another at intervals of 6 feet to 20 feet. The fences can be tackled with wirecutters, but the main danger lies in the vigilance of the border guards on their watch towers and a collection of obstacles such as trip wires, alarm signals, and even bloodhounds on long leashes.

Sometimes, it is the most daring escapes, made right under the noses of the guards, which succeed. This was the case of July 29 this year when a 34-year-old Leipzig engineer, Heinz Holzapfel, boldy entered the East German House of Ministries in the East Berlin with his 32-year-old wife Jutta, and nine-year-old son, Guenther, carrying two briefcases and a large bag. He led the family to an attic room where they hid until nightfall. Then they crawled on to the roof, past the lighted window of the Soviet guard post, to the Government flagpole. With the help of two people on the Western side of the wall, which adjoins the southern side of ministerial building, Holzapfel drew a a steel cable up to him on a nylon rope and attached it to the flagpole. The family slid 180 yards down the slanted rope with the help of makeshift slings which he had in his bag.