The Man Who Got Homesick

A year ago, a truck carrying eight men and a load of automatic weapons rumbled from Berlin's Eastern sector over into the West. West Berlin police arrested them on charges of being members of the East zone's Bereitschaften, the heavily armed shock troops the Russians were illegally organizing in the East zone (TIME, June 12). At their trial, two of the men turned state's evidence. One of them, 21-year-old Heinz Nocht, gave Western intelligence a detailed picture of the new East German army, amply equipped by the Russians with Nazi weapons. Since then, Western diplomats have found Nocht's testimony useful for throwing back at the Russians whenever they accuse the West of aggressive designs against East Germany. Nocht was paroled and taken to West Germany, where he lived out of reach of Red agents.

Recently, Nocht began to miss his home. Despite Western warnings, Nocht went to Berlin. Early last month, he moved into his old home in the Russian sector, cautiously going out only at night. A few days later, three men in plain clothes called on Nocht and took him away at pistol-point. That, at week's end, was the last anyone had heard of the man who had got homesick.

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