Cold War Illinois by Christopher Sturdevant

Author:Christopher Sturdevant [Sturdevant, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Military, Nuclear Warfare, Wars & Conflicts (Other), United States, State & Local, Midwest (IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; ND; NE; OH; SD; WI)
ISBN: 9781439670484
Google: mFjcDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2020-08-31T23:56:50.977262+00:00

EAST GERMAN STASI PRISONER REUNION

Francis Gary Powers Jr. was extended an invitation to a lecture on behalf of a local Cold War history group formed in 2003. Gary was the founder of the Cold War Museum in Washington, D.C. The founding of the museum was intended to honor his father’s Cold War legacy as a U-2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, subsequent imprisonment and release in exchange for Soviet colonel Rudolf Abel. The movie Bridge of Spies, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks as John Donovan, who arranged the famous spy swap in 1962, gives a handy account of the story. In order to recognize the heretofore unheralded stories of the Cold War era, the mission of the Cold War Museum expanded broadly to include several decades’ worth of conflict with the Soviet Union. Gary Powers’ invite spurred coordination of efforts and creation of the Midwest Chapter of the Cold War Museum.

My former school teacher John Van Altena and I reconnected shortly before Gary’s visit, and he and I discussed his Cold War history in East German Stasi prisons in the early 1960s. The Stasi was the East German secret police that kept that government’s control over the population during the Cold War. Fortunately, John had written a book, A Guest of the State, in 1968 that recounted John’s capture, foray into the Stasi prison system and eventual release. It was said that at any given time, the Stasi convinced one out of every sixty-seven people to become informants. Under communism, it was very lucrative to give information to the state to get ahead. That might include a better job, a larger flat (apartment), more rations and luxuries such as a television, a washing machine or even a vehicle. The ability to snitch on a family member, neighbor, co-worker, boss or other resident created an aura of suspicion that formed the basis of distrust among the population.

A surprise reunion took place due to the invitation of Gary Powers to lecture in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Gary had given me a contact in Chicago named Werner Juretzko to invite to his lecture at Carroll University while he was town. Werner had a peculiar past, as discussed previously. Talking by telephone with Werner, in his thick German accent, he was shaken upon my mention of John Van Altena’s name. Werner had not seen John since 1968, some thirty-six years prior. Both Werner and John had shared a history at East Berlin’s notorious Hohenschoenhausen prison during the Cold War, albeit at different times and for different reasons. Werner served a stretch of time in the notorious prison from 1955 to 1961 for crimes against the state of East Germany. John and Werner had met by happenstance during John’s book tour in 1968. Thereafter, they would visit each other’s homes to share stories. Werner, a Chicagoan since 1962, when he immigrated to the United States, was invited to John’s farm in Wisconsin and recalled an amusing scenario visiting an American farm for the first time.

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