Anger at the Wall

East and West may talk of detente, but along the Berlin Wall the dominant sound is still the staccato of the machine gun. Almost every night the "Grepos," East Germany's infamous border police, turn on their searchlights and open up at a fugitive real or imagined, who they think is trying to cross into the West.

When the Grepos began firing long, sustained bursts last week, several hundred residents of the French sector rushed to their windows and balconies to watch the tragic drama below. On the death strip, which at night is always illuminated with high-intensity floodlights, three people were running for their lives. One was cut down, and the other two were captured before they could get to the Wall. All three were hauled roughly away.

Angered by the brutal scene, several residents ran onto the soccer field separating the buildings from the Wall. Some started tearing out concrete slabs with their bare hands. Others joined them, and soon some 300 men, women and children were at the Wall, screaming their frustration and anger at the hated Grepos. A hole six feet wide was ripped out of the barrier, and several young men prepared to assault the other side. Their impotence was quickly made clear, however, by an East German soldier, who pointedly reloaded his submachine gun and aimed it at their faces. Scattered shouts of "murderers," "criminals" and "swine" changed to a rhythmic chant of rage and frustration. Eventually West Berlin police arrived and told the crowd to go back to bed. "Ah, they were great, these Berliners, just great," exclaimed a French military policeman who was there.

The French commandant, speaking for his British and American colleagues as well, protested the incident, particularly he said, "when so many people in Europe hope for a lessening of tension." Added the Berliner Morgenpost: "The spirit of Helsinki may wave where it wants, but it is not waving in and around Berlin."

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