ABSTRACT
Harry Deterling was angry. Like many people in East Berlin, he resented the Communist Party and the wall they had put up. He didn’t believe the East German leaders who kept telling everyone that the wall was there to protect them from aggression from the West. Harry was a 27-year-old train engineer. His usual route once took him through the border into West Berlin, but now there were concrete barriers to block the trains from entering West Berlin. During the autumn, Harry made plans. He talked with the fireman on the train, his friend Hartmut Lichy. They set December 5 as their travel day, and very quietly, Harry and Hartmut talked to a few friends and family whom they could trust completely. They told them they were taking the “last train to freedom,” and if they wanted to escape, then they needed to be on that train.
