September 1961 · False papers and disguises · Checkpoint Charlie
Ingrid crosses at Friedrichstraße on her fiancé's sister's US passport
In late September 1961 a graduate student in West Berlin walked his East Berlin fiancée, her hair dyed to match the photo, through the Friedrichstraße/Zimmerstraße crossing on his sister's US passport.
Leslie Colitt, a graduate student in West Berlin who later became a journalist, had become engaged to Ingrid, a medical technician at the Charité, two weeks before the Wall went up. They ruled out the 'green border' and decided she would use his sister's US passport, which arrived by post a week after he cabled his parents. On the day chosen, Ingrid had her hair dyed to match the passport photo and wore only clothes from the West in case she was searched.
That evening, in late September 1961, the plan to leave by the S-Bahn from Friedrichstraße station was dropped after a border official there questioned Colitt about his repeated crossings that day. The couple instead walked up Friedrichstraße towards the border at Zimmerstraße. As Ingrid was about to hand over the passport it fell to the ground. The young guard, who spoke no English, compared the photo with her face and said 'Auf Wiedersehen'. They walked through the narrow opening between the tank barriers and barbed wire and took the U-Bahn from Kochstraße.
Ingrid went through the refugee procedure at Marienfelde and was questioned again by the Americans. She telegraphed her parents the next morning. They married in 1962; she saw her parents again only in 1969, when they were allowed to move to West Berlin as pensioners.
Sources
- Escape from East BerlinThe Guardian (Leslie Colitt)
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