For Escaped East German Border Guard, There’s No Going Home at Christmastime

As Christmas was approaching, Jens Bernhardt started thinking of home on the other side of the dangerous Berlin Wall.

But the former East German border guard knows there’s no going back after his dramatic July, 1987, escape to the West.

“Everything, everyone in my family is back there. It was tough last Christmas. This year it’s also going to be hard--really hard,” Bernhardt said.

While hundreds of East Germans flee to West Germany and West Berlin over border barriers each year, only a small number return to their communist homeland, West German officials say.

For those fearing possible punishment if they return, there are often pangs of homesickness, especially during the Christmas season.

Bernhardt, who said he would be prosecuted as a deserter if he dared to return home, described what it’s like to be an East German escapee unable to be with his family for Christmas.

“Last year I decided to do volunteer work during Christmas at Checkpoint Charlie” to keep occupied, Bernhardt said in an interview in West Berlin.

‘Sitting Around Alone’

“Just sitting around alone . . . ,” he said, shaking his head without finishing the sentence as he reflected on another Christmas away from home.

Checkpoint Charlie, a crossing between East Berlin and West Berlin, is tightly controlled by communist troops.

Bernhardt works full-time on the West Berlin side of the checkpoint, giving guided tours at a museum devoted to escapees from East Germany and lecturing student groups on conditions in his homeland.

While Bernhardt admits it is hard making contacts in the West as an outsider, he said he’s happy he took the chance.

“Even now after more than a year I wake up some mornings and break out laughing just at the thought of being here,” Bernhardt said.

Bernhardt was a 19-year-old East German border guard when he climbed down from a guard tower and scrambled over a steel-mesh fence separating West Berlin’s Spandau district from East German territory near Potsdam.

Bernhardt said he decided to flee after he was assigned duty as a border guard and he was faced with shoot-to-kill orders along the East German-constructed barriers.

“There are so many who try to flee, and every DDR (German Democratic Republic) soldier is afraid they may someday have to shoot someone escaping. I couldn’t come to terms with that,” Bernhardt said.

At Least 77 Fatalities

At least 77 people have been killed trying to escape over communist-built barriers blocking off West Berlin, according to the Working Group August 13. The human rights organization took its name from the day East Germany began building the Berlin Wall on Aug. 13, 1961.

Bernhardt gave a gripping account of his escape to the West.

“There were always two guards, but your partner and guard tower were changed regularly so you didn’t get to know each other well enough to build up trust,” Bernhardt recalled.

“So after planning for two weeks--I knew I had to do it--I waited until my partner fell asleep at 3 a.m.,” he said.

After hiding his colleague’s ammunition, Bernhardt said he climbed down from the tower. His knees weak with fright, Bernhardt crossed the strip of land separating the tower from the 10-foot-high steel-mesh fence blocking his way to West Berlin.

“I was so afraid I would be spotted and shot at from another tower. My knees were like rubber and I couldn’t run. I staggered like a drunk to that fence and pulled myself over it with metal hooks I stuck in the holes of the panels,” Bernhardt said.