Battle of the Martyrs

A Communist cop walked up to the border dividing Berlin, glanced uneasily to left & right, and quickly unbuttoned his overcoat. To a West Berlin patrolman standing guard, the Communist whispered: "For your dead one," and handed over a wreath. Then he disappeared.

The dead one was Herbert Bauer, 26, the West Berlin policeman murdered on Christmas morning by three Red army soldiers (TIME, Jan. 5). He was buried last week at a state funeral attended by 200,000 angry West Berliners. An honor guard of 250 riot squadders snapped to attention as Bauer's cortege rolled into the square in front of West Berlin City Hall; massed bands played the Funeral March from Beethoven's Eroica; Mayor Ernst Reuter delivered the oration: "Never do we want to fall victim to the system to which Herbert Bauer fell victim ... If mankind can't help us, we will lift up our hands and cry 'Oh Lord, make us free.' " When it was all over, Patrolman Herbert Bauer was laid to rest in Tegel cemetery, as a martyr of the Cold War.

That night East Berlin's Communists, alarmed by Germany's reaction to a murder committed by Russians, went hunting for a martyr whom they could call their own. Next morning, they tacked up a proclamation: "On January 5 ... the entire peace-loving and patriotic population of Berlin will say farewell to that exemplary fighter of the People's Police, Helmut Just. He was murdered by agents of Mayor Reuter . . . another of the sneaky and brutal provocations on the part of American warmongers."

Just, a chubby 19-year-old, lay in state, guarded by four East Berlin athletes. He had been shot in the back of his neck, but no one knew by whom. Communist newspapers promptly published letters from "patriotic mothers," pledging their sons to the People's Police in place of Martyr Just. Amidst such competition in martyrdom, 1,520 refugees fled to the West in one day, a new record.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.