PECEMBEI IBSS John To More Os · 2020. 8. 26. · IBSS John Accomplice Tells Os Dramatic Escape By...
Transcript of PECEMBEI IBSS John To More Os · 2020. 8. 26. · IBSS John Accomplice Tells Os Dramatic Escape By...
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•• THE EVENING STAR. Washington, D. C.imtSPAT, PECEMBEI TS. IBSS
John Accomplice TellsOs Dramatic Escape
By HENDRIK BONDE- ,HENDRIKSEN
Copynjht. 1855. by the Associated Press
SOMEWHERE IN WEST GER-MANY. Dec. 15.—1 t was De-icember 12 In Berlin. The hourwas 4:52 p.m. Behind us was
'the Brandenburg gate. I wasjjdrivingslowly towards the WestHJerlin customs control post.
: - At my side in the car sat Dr. i, Otto John, slightly disguised,
| with glasses and a pipe. He had; -fay multicolored scarp tied close-
ly around his neck and the hatvjaas deep over his forehead.
It was bitterly cold and the,ij freezing customs officers who
recognized my car waved mej,; through. No scrutinizing glance
was thrown into the car where -i the passenger was courageouslyt puffing on the pipe.{• ..Close by the victory column ;Istopped. Tears were streaming i
* down Dr. John's cheeks.“Nightmare is Over”
“How wonderful that thisnightmare is over,” he said in« muffled voice. "Icouldn't stand;It much longer. If we had beeneaught I was just hoping tor achance to commit suicide.”
I asked Dr. John what actuallyhappened on July 20, 1954, theday when he left the West. Hetold this story:
"Could any of my friends be-lieve that I had passed the sec-,tor line voluntarily? Around 8p.m., I visited Dr. Wohlgemuth,at his Uhlandstrasse clinic. Hehad promised to obtain a pen-sion for a widow of one of theexecuted men who had resistedthe Nazis. During the war,Wohlgemuth had helped my:brother who was later executed.
"I had tea with 'Wowo,' as wecalled him. Later we were to go,to another apartment he had in;West Berlin. On the way hewas to contact a person whoshould help this widow.
Given Injections“What happened after that'
time I don’t know. I woke uptwo days later in KarlshorstJThere was a woman doctor atmy bed. And there were SovietIntelligence agents around. Iwas given an injection and lateranother one. My head was not;clear. Ithink there is a Mexican |plant poison . . .
"After the August 11 pressconference in East Berlin I dida thing that I had been told Imust not do. Iwent down amongthe newspapermen and whis-pered to Sefton Delmer of the(London) Daily Express: ‘lt|stinks horribly here.’
"At that time I honestly be-1lieved that I was free to go backto West Berlin when the pressconference was over. But Soviet!agents cordoned me off. I was;softly pushed back and immedi- jately after the conference I was 1
¦flown to. Moscow.
HENRIK BO&DE-HENDRIKSEN
Helped Dr. John Escape—AP Photo. |
make a Communist out of me."Dr. John snapped He ordered"a drink served for the agents,waiting in the car down thestreet.
“You have to be decent topeople with narrow minds,” hecommented.
Late last October the Copen-hagen University Students As-sociation asked me to arrangea lecture by Dr. John in Copen-hagen. 1 went over to East Ber-lin. called Dr John’s office and
'arranged a lunch with him.Denmark Visit Barred
1 He was very interested but saidhe had to ask Russian permis-jsion.
Two days later we met at theI East Berlin Press Club. Dr.John brought along a personknown to both of us. He toldme the Russians had turneddown the Copenhagen visit:
j "They are afraid that I shall(jump off the wagon in Copen-hagen.”
I asked him if he had ever'thought of doing so,
"Um Gottes willen (God will-ing).” he replied, simultaneously
: stepping on my foot underneath•!the table.
Plans Escapej When the third man wentto the mens room Dr. Johnwhispered:
“We must talk about how Ican get out. I have been work-ing on a plan. Couldn't an
"Here I was detained for a jcouple of weeks and I was almostquestioned to death. I didn't dis- jclose any secrets but, naturally.I had to keep talking and tellingthings. I have never been goodat remembering names. Fortu-nately so. Then I was twomonths on the Crimea. Twelvemonths ago yesterday I was backin East Berlin and placed undersurveillance of the East Germansecurity service.”
Correction ExplainedOtto John oegan to tremble all
over. He asked if we would reachTempelhof in time. I told himthat two seats were reserved inithe 5:45 plane, one for Dr.;Fischer (Otto John* and another !for Dr. Vogel (Bonde-Hendrik-sen) and that we would be initime.
Let me disclose ¦ some facts iabout my connection with Dr.John.
On day I had lunch with Dr.John in the Friedrichstrasse EastGerman Press Club. The sub-jects we discussed were the po-litical situation, the chances ofGerman reunification, etc. Iconsidered his views somewhatout of proportion and deliber-ately avoided anything that hadto do with his personal affairs.
I had a feeling that somethingwas wrong. I expected that hewould let me know when hefound the situation r4pe forwhatever he had in mind.
Allowed to ReturnAt a meeting with State Sec-
retary Dr. Strauss, from theFederal Ministry of Justice, Iasked him what would happen ifDr. John reappeared in WestGermany. Well aware that Ioften saw John. Dr. Strausssaid:
“Tell him that he can returnwithout risk. He will probablynot be arrested but, naturally,we shall have questions to ask.”:
I passed the message on toDr. John
It was about that time thatI found out that Dr. John wasbeing shadowed by Communistagents. One night, when wehad met for a quick drink before!a party to which we both were;invited, I asked him if I could'give him a lift in my car.
“Are you crazy 9” he said. "Wewill have to ask the permissionof my bodyguard
”
Dr. John took me over to ablack automobile. I asked thetwo agents t.iere if he coulddrive with me. They said: “Byall means. We will follow closebehind
”
That was early this autumn, jI asked Dr. John if the two
agents were always near."I live with them,” he replied
“The mother-in-law of one ofthem is keeping house for us.1 have requested that the agentsnever follow me at restaurantsor at private parties. I want totalk to whomever Iwant to talkto without being spied upon.”
At the party Dr John openlyattacked the East German Com-munist Party boss, Walter Ul-bricht, and asked a Russian dip-lomat how the Kremlin couldthink of "picking a first violinplaying horribly dissonant notes.”The Russian smiled and said:
"An interesting point, my cap-italist friend. An interestingpoint.”
"Don't think you will ever
k (
Hendrik Bonde-Hendriksen, 35, Berlincorrespondent for Berlingjke Tidende,Denmark's largest newspaper, servedas the contact and turnished themeans tor Dr. Otto John to return toWest Germany from the Soviet zone.Dr. John, former West German in
chief, bolted to East Ger-many July 20, 1954. He returned toWest Germany Monday ond is now
I being grilled by officials of ChancellorKpnrad Adenauer's government. BondeHendrikscn here tells the story of thereturn and the events preceding it.
allied car pick me up at theopera one night?"
I told him this involved dan- (;er of a political conflict. The
: third man returned and weagreed to meet again the nextweek.
We met in a restaurant andmade a lot of noise with theknives and forks to prevent ourwhispering from reaching anyconcealed microphones.
1 "I have to get out quickly."!Dr. John said. “I can’t standit any longer. If my wife hadnot encouraged me between thelines in her letters from Eng-
land I would have committedsuicide long ago. Could yoiOhelp!me? They know your car at the,Brandenburg gate. I think Ifhave a plan that will work.” j
Picks Day of FairDr. John told me he had picked
December 12 because it was theday after the big Christmas fairhad been opened on Marx-Engels:square. The merry-go-roundersand roller coasters were certainto draw a lot of attention andincrease traffic actors the sector;line.j Dr. John said he planned toask the agents to drive him toHumbolt University and leavehim alone for talks with acer-itain professor. He planned toask the agents to buy a bottleof brandy for the joint house-hold at the Christmas market,
• He planned to walk through theuniversity and out near a park-ing lot. ,
On December 7, Dr. John toldme at a lunch at the Newa Res-
-1 taurant that he had tried theplan out "with the agents. Itworked. He obtained proof thatonly the agents in the car wereassigned to shadow him.
, “We dare not stay one nightin West Berlin,” Dr. John said.“They will go all out to find meiand kill me. We have to get out!of Berlin before my bodyguard¦ can sound the alarm.”
i : Arrangements Made, j John said the Communists
. would not expect him to fleei December 12 because he had
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I «,
(speeches scheduled December13 and 14.I was to make all arrsfcge-
ment in West Berlin. Last Satur-day we met casually in the pressclub and I managed to whisper:
"Monday at 4.50 P.M. Pan-American to Cologne-Wahn 5:45P.M. Tempelhof (airfield) 5:20at the latest.”
At 3:30 Monday Ipocketed my;shaver and toothbrush. On the!auto seat beside me were glasses,a pipe and a scarf. I arrived atthe parking lot in time, and inthe rear-view mirror saw Johnwalk out of the university. Iswitched the headlights on andstarted the motor. Then he wa„sitting there. With tremblinghands he lit the pipe and whis-pered:
f "Get moving, for Heaven’ssake."
Signaled to Stop
We drove on, slowly. There isa 25-mile speed limit in EastBerlin. When we passed Wil-hem strasse, a Communist po-liceman flashed his red torch-light, signaling us to stop. Ijeame to halt right at his feet,put down the window and said:
! “Good evening, officer; every-thing is all right.”
He noticed the Danish flag onthe car and the press sticker,glanced in the back and wavedus on.-
“This is the end of the demo-cratic sector,” says a big signat the Brandenburg Gate.i ' “We Are Through”J When we passed that wecried out in unison:
"We are through.”
At Tempelhof the plane wasdelayed 15 minutes. But finally
, we were aloft, and when it wasannounced that we were overWest Germany we ordered twodouble brandies.
i At the Cologne-Wahn Airportwe stayed in the plane untilother passengers left. John wasjthe first to speak. He said:j “Come to think of it, I havenot seen Dr. Wohlgemuth sinceJuly 20, 1954. but I have heard
I that he is in China.”German security officials were
I waiting for us. There were quick; handshakes and then we were on• the road to Bonn.
Dr. John Is Shifted jTo Wiesbaden for jMore Questioning
WIESBADEN, Germany, Dec.i 15 UP).—Otto John, turncoat for-!mer West German Intelligence¦ chief, was reported transferred
> today from Bonn to the Federal, Criminal Police headquarters in
; Wiesbaden for further question-;i ing.i Hermann Dullien, head of the 1
[ criminal police, refused to con-I firm or deny the report.
. Dr. John. 46. deserted to Com-: munist East Germany July 20. 1
1954, and returned to West Ger-many Monday.
i Since then, he has been ques-tioned intensively in Bonn byFederal Supreme Court investi-gators.
1 Dr. Johi. has been held incom-: municado since his return, a’. government spokesman in Bonn
said yesterday Dr. John knew be-fore he fled West that he would¦ have to face accusations of
1 treason.
Success Seen! For Satellitel i tbe Astocleted Press
! One of the directingpreparations says* he is confident
( the United States will launch aman-made earth satellite suc-
cessfully before the end of 1958., The prediction came from Dr.Richard Porter, chairman of thetechnical panel on the earth sa-tellite program and former
(president of the AmericanRocket Society. He addressed
>ithe society last night and talked’ with newsmen later.
1 The United States Is seekingto launch such a satellite in con-
: Jnection with observance of the1 international geophysical year,
> a cooperative effort by variouscountries including ljussia toi
: push scientific knowledge ahead.¦ Dr. Porter said It may be;l necessary to launch several!satellites before one is success-
: fully kept aloft. But he added; he is “confident that before the
i end of the geophysical year we)will have achieved our goal.”
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