EAST GERMANY: Three Made It

In West Berlin one night last week, an unsuspecting German was sauntering near a stretch of barbed wire that marked the barrier between the free and the Red sectors of the city. Suddenly two ragged, haggard and grim-faced young men popped out of nowhere, poked a pistol against the German stroller's chest. One of them rasped: "Take us to the American military police. If you hand us over to the Russians, we shoot you." The German hastily complied. Not far away a third young man, also armed, accosted a German waiting for an El train and had himself taken to the Americans the same way.

Thus ended a saga—replete with danger, death, bravery and suffering—that had begun four weeks earlier; it had echoed in shrill and mysterious announcements over the Communist radio and in its press.

Originally, the three were five, all Czechs: two brothers, Ctirad and Josef Masin, in their early 20s; a friend, Milan Baumer, 22, a military cadet; Zbynek Janata, 30, a factory executive; and Vaclav Svejda, 30, a disappropriated landowner. Armed with one revolver of about .35 caliber, two smaller automatics and 52 cartridges—arms hidden since World War II—the group formed up in Prague. Early in October they crossed the Czech-East German frontier at night. They were almost due south of Berlin and some 130 air miles away.

Five days later they had covered about a third of the distance on foot, living on apples and potatoes. They sold a silver cigarette case, a watch and two sweaters for train fare. At Uckro, only 40 miles from Berlin, they had their first gun fight with the Vopos (People's Police). "As we were leaving the station," Ctirad Masin recounted later, "Vopos suddenly confronted us and asked for identification . . . My brother and I drew our guns and started shooting. Three of the Vopos fell, and the others fled, as did all the bystanders. Then we ran . . . Later we realized that Janata was missing. We heard from some East zone people that he had been arrested at the station."

Then there were four.

Fire in the Woods. Sixteen miles farther on, scenting danger (by then there was a price on their heads and 12.000 Vopos were looking for them), the Czechs hid in a haystack, foraging at night for food. One day they heard a man's voice; the man was saying that he knew the refugees were hidden near by and that he was going to inform the police. Then a woman's voice: "Why, for the sake of heaven above, do you want to do that?"

That night they moved on. A police limousine and two motorcycles stopped on the road; the police opened fire as the Czechs ran into a patch of woods. The Vopos surrounded the patch with searchlights and combed it with machine-gun fire. Svejda was hit. The other three wanted to take him along, but the wounded man said: "Leave me here. Save yourselves."

After that, there were three.