25 April 1982 · Hidden in vehicles
Two dentists and their son in the boot of a US Army Volvo
Two young American soldiers picked up a dentist couple from Cottbus and their four-year-old son at a transit car park and hid them in the boot. The GDR had noticed – and the Soviets held the car at Drewitz until the US military police opened the boot.
At 10.10 p.m. on 25 April 1982 a Volvo belonging to the US forces stationed in West Berlin drove into the military lane of the Drewitz checkpoint after being cleared at Marienborn for the military transit route to West Berlin. It carried two American soldiers, Specialist 4 Austin-Shelton Stockmann (born 1960) and Private David-Franzes Pierce (born 1964).
GDR surveillance had seen them take three GDR citizens into the boot during a short stop at a car park on the transit route. The Soviet authorities, who handled Allied military traffic, were informed and stopped the car from leaving for West Berlin. At 2.49 a.m. on 26 April an officer of the US military police, who had since arrived, opened the boot. The three people inside – two adults and a child – were handed by the Soviets to the GDR authorities.
They were Dittmar May (32) and Monika May (29), both dentists in the children's department of the Cottbus district hospital, and their son Christian, aged four. The parents were arrested and prosecuted; the boy was placed in a children's home. The Stasi proposed a strong protest to the US embassy.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1982: Verhinderte Ausschleusung von DDR-Bürgern durch US-Militärangehörige – Information Nr. 216/82, 26 April 1982Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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