From the archive, 18 August 1962: Grim scenes at Berlin Wall as refugee left to die

Berlin, August 17
Two young East Berlin building workers, both 18 years of age, made a dash for the Berlin wall today. One got over safely into West Berlin, the other was killed.

The one who was killed was hit in the back and stomach by bullets fired by Communist guards as he was on top of the 6ft. wall. He fell back into East Berlin and, his clothes blood-soaked, lay groaning for 45 minutes. The East German police who shot him made no effort to go to his aid.

The man’s cries became weaker and at last stopped. His inert body was then slung over a Communist policeman’s shoulder and carried away like a sack of potatoes. No one in the crowd of West Berliners watching the scene doubted that he was dead. He was the fiftieth refugee killed while trying to escape since the wall was built a year ago.

Tear gas thrown
Hundreds of onlookers soon turned into several thousand and there were shouts of “murderers” and “bandits” over the wall at three East Berlin guards who stood, with machine-pistols, on the wall. Communist police then threw four tear-gas grenades from a first-floor window overlooking the crowd. Western police retaliated.

A West Berlin Red Cross worker, who watched the body being removed, said it would seem impossible for someone with stomach wounds to lie bleeding and unattended for 45 minutes, part of the time in a choking cloud of tear gas, and survive. Later the East Germans announced that the young man had died.

A crowd of West Berliners booed six US military policemen who rushed to the scene, but withdrew when the East Berlin police began throwing tear-gas grenades.

West Germans obeyed orders
Herr Heinrich Albertz, head of the West Berlin Department of the Interior, said that on Tuesday he would as the City Senate to open new talks with the Western Allies to end “this intolerable situation,” He said that until now West Berlin police had obeyed orders not to shoot into East Berlin to save or help a refugee. West Berlin police today stood by as a man lay bleeding and so close to him that they could hear his groans and cries for help.

Two of the East German guards were convicted of killing Peter Fechter in 1997; the third guard died before charges were brought.