Word: fechter
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Peter Fechter's unattended death at the Berlin Wall [Aug. 31] should not be held to the account of the American troops there...
...Berlin to the boil, Russia last week let the city simmer a while. Soviet armored cars continued to shuttle through the Western sector; they drew only scowls from the crowds that had stoned them the week before. More than 300 East Berliners turned out for the funeral of Peter Fechter, the 18-year-old bricklayer who had been shot and left to die while trying to cross the Wall. Surest sign of relaxed tensions was the Western alliance's return to disarray. Despite President Kennedy's announcement that the Big Four had agreed "in principle" to a foreign...
When the pair made their dash early one afternoon last week, Fechter's friend managed to climb the six-foot-high barrier and leap over the barbed wire on top. But Fechter paused for a few fatal seconds, long enough for the Grenzpolizei (border police) to raise their weapons and fire. Shot in the back by crossfire. Fechter fell back onto the death strip only 300 yds. from Checkpoint Charlie, the U.S. command post at the busy Friedrichstrasse border crossing...
...order: "Lieutenant, you have your orders. Stand fast. Do nothing." Not knowing the reason for the Americans' inaction, an agonized crowd swirled around the command post crying: "For God's sake, go get him." When a German reporter asked why the American troops did not rescue Fechter. one G.I. replied, "This is not our problem...
Fifty-five minutes after he had fallen to the ground, Peter Fechter's lifeless body was carted away by Communist cops. He was the 50th East German known to have been killed while attempting to breach the Wall...