Heidelberger Straße Tunnel and the Death of Heinz Jercha

Heinz Jercha, a butcher who had fled the GDR a few years earlier and lived in West Berlin with his wife and daughter, joined an escape-helper group initiated by Fritz Wagner in spring 1962. Together with Harry Seidel he dug a tunnel from the cellar of Heidelberger Straße 35 in Neukölln under the border to the cellar of number 75 on the East Berlin side of the divided street.

From 21 March 1962 the helpers brought East Germans through the tunnel every evening; the memorial plaque speaks of about 50 people between 22 and 27 March. Jercha and Seidel, armed with pistols for their own protection, collected refugees at the East Berlin end.

An East Berlin resident who had won Seidel's trust was in fact the Stasi informer 'IM Naumann' and betrayed the tunnel. From 25 March Stasi men lay in wait in the house where the tunnel ended. On the evening of 27 March, when Jercha went upstairs to meet refugees, the arrest squad opened fire. Jercha fled back through the tunnel with Seidel, but a ricochet struck him in the chest and he collapsed and died in West Berlin shortly afterwards, aged 27.

In the West his death caused a wave of sympathy; his widow and daughter were granted benefits equal to war survivors. The GDR denied responsibility for decades. Investigations in the 1990s identified four former Stasi men who had fired, but the case was closed without charges. A plaque at Heidelberger Straße 35 now commemorates him.