78-01-A6
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Human Rights II[edit]
Transcript[edit]An American ex-G.I. and his German-born wife have made the perilous journey through the Berlin Wall almost a dozen times in the last few years to help people who have no human rights. This couple will have to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. You see, they'll be making more trips to East Germany. The wife in our story was a little girl when American bombers were flattening the city in which she lived. Her father was a prisoner in an American prison camp. The war ended, he returned to his family and they watched the Russian tanks roll in. Six years later they escaped to West Germany where the girl grew up and married an American soldier. Our Mrs. X knew great anguish as she learned of what her country under Hitler had done. She even turned away from God for letting her be born there, but that was only for a little while. She says, "Then I realized He knew what He was doing when He gave me the life He did." And she explains that her experience fitted her for the missions of mercy she has undertaken since coming to America. She and her husband began by making contact with those Germans who had courageously defied Hitler. They learned all the tricks one must know to visit relatives or strangers in East Germany without bringing the wrath of the Communists down on their heads . She says that outside the Soviet Union there is no tighter and more repressive Communist government than that in East Berlin . And she adds, "If I remain quiet about what I know I become implicated in the crime in East Germany just like those who knew what went on under Hitler but preferred to shed the responsibility". Right now she is trying to help a man named Rolf Mainz and his family. Mr. Mainz held an executive position with a publishing company. Then one day he dropped his membership in the Communist party. Several days later he was fired but no one would say why. He can list his credentials in seeking employment, but when his name is learned it seems the vacancy has just been filled. So, after six months he wrote a letter to the editor of a West German paper-- a sarcastic letter under the heading "Comrades why don't you come live with us?" His letter telling of his effort to get a job was printed on page one. One week later the paper reported he had been arrested four days after his letter appeared. He is now serving a 54-month sentence in the worst, most brutal East German prison. His wife has lost her job and his children are abused at school. Both he and his wife suffer from ill health. Friends and neighbors are afraid to even speak to the family, let alone offer neighborly help. Mr. and Mrs. X have helped with money and necessities and have contacted the West German government and Amnesty International about Rolf Mainz. They say the greatest need now is for our representatives in Washington to know about this blatant violation of the Helsinki pact so that pressure might be put on the East German government to free Mainz and let him and his family leave East Germany . I hope this helps a little. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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