Who was one of the first and youngest fatalities of the Berlin Wall?
Peter Fechter was 18 years old when he and friend Helmut Kulbeik attempted to cross the wall from East Berlin into the West. Kulbeik made it across successfully, but Fechter was shot as he tried to climb the wall. No warning shots had been given. He fell and lay writhing (as sequential photos reveal) and screaming (those at the scene reported) for an hour.
The American soldiers on the Western side of the wall were given orders not to intervene; an East German guard had been shot by a Westerner a few days back and tensions along the border were high. With armies of the Warsaw Pact lined up on one side of the wall, and those of the Allies -- American, British and French -- lined up on the other, the overriding fear was that any border skirmish would slide quickly into a third World War.
These are the circumstances that led to a teenager being denied medical aid and bleeding to death in the heart of a city as thousands watched.
I'm glad in this photo he's staring right into the camera -- it's like he's meeting us head on, those of us who, decades later, wonder who he was.
To begin the search for Peter Fechter and his death at the Berlin Wall, check out the Wikipedia article. We'll move on from here in subsequent posts.
Peter Fechter was 18 years old when he and friend Helmut Kulbeik attempted to cross the wall from East Berlin into the West. Kulbeik made it across successfully, but Fechter was shot as he tried to climb the wall. No warning shots had been given. He fell and lay writhing (as sequential photos reveal) and screaming (those at the scene reported) for an hour.
The American soldiers on the Western side of the wall were given orders not to intervene; an East German guard had been shot by a Westerner a few days back and tensions along the border were high. With armies of the Warsaw Pact lined up on one side of the wall, and those of the Allies -- American, British and French -- lined up on the other, the overriding fear was that any border skirmish would slide quickly into a third World War.
These are the circumstances that led to a teenager being denied medical aid and bleeding to death in the heart of a city as thousands watched.
I'm glad in this photo he's staring right into the camera -- it's like he's meeting us head on, those of us who, decades later, wonder who he was.
To begin the search for Peter Fechter and his death at the Berlin Wall, check out the Wikipedia article. We'll move on from here in subsequent posts.
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