Ex-East German Intelligence Officer Jailed For Murder 50 Years Ago

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BERLIN/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – An 80-year-old former officer with East Germany’s feared Stasi secret police has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the murder of a Polish firefighter at a Berlin border crossing 50 years ago.

Martin Naumann, now 80, shot Czesław Kukuczka in the back at close range on 29 March 1974 as Kukuczka walked towards the last in a series of control posts at a transit area in the divided city, which became a symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin court found Monday.

Naumann had been told he had a free pass to escape to West Berlin. The Berlin Wall dividing the city would only disappear decades after the reunification of Germany, which followed the collapse of Communist rule in East Germany in 1989.

Yet, commentators said the trial, primarily based on historical documents and fading memories, underlined the difficulties Germany faces in bringing ex-East German officials to justice.

The truth surrounding Kukuczka’s death was never revealed to his family, according to investigators.

Instead, his cremated remains were sent in an urn to his wife, Emilia, weeks later, after which he was buried in a private ceremony by his family in southern Poland.

It took the dogged research skills of a historian immersed in the history of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), or the Stas, years later to discover the details of the case.

NO PERSONAL REASONS

While the defendant “did not commit the crime for personal reasons,” he “executed it mercilessly,” presiding judge Bernd Miczajka argued in his verdict.

Trial observers noted that for more than six months, the pensioner—a slim man with white hair around the sides of his head—listened intently and quietly took notes during hearings.

His defense attorney said at the beginning of the trial that he denied the allegations.

Yet the public prosecutor is convinced that on March 29, 1974, Czeslaw Kukuczka, a 38-year-old Polish father of three, was killed “with a targeted shot to the back from a hiding place” at the crossing point at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse station — the busiest border crossing at the Berlin Wall.

At least 140 people were killed trying to escape over the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, but in the 34 years since reunification, those responsible have rarely faced justice.

Including the inner German border and the Baltic Sea, historians estimate that the total number of deaths linked to escape attempts is closer to 650.

Many of those responsible for East German injustices died soon after reunification in 1990. Even Stasi chief Erich Mielke, who was 81 when the Berlin Wall fell, evaded punishment after he was deemed unfit to stand trial in 1994.

Yet this latest trial is viewed as another attempt by Germany to help close another dark chapter in its recent troubled history.

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