REDS FREE FLIERS -CLAIM SPY DATA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300410013-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 9, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: March 28, 1964
• Content Type: NSPR

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NEWpPfr ed For Release 2000/08/27: CIA-RDP75 0bf491k0b1 3dO 1b013-3
HERALD TRIBUNE MAR 2 8 1968
TIE AIRMEN
By Myron Kandel
/PgWdr~s?td Tribune staff
Y
BONN.
wo merican fliers, held
captive by Soviet forces for
17 days after their RB-66B
reconnaissance plane was
shot down over East Ger-
many, were released yester-
day.
As the two men were'
handed over to United States
authorities. official Soviet
and East German statements
said investigation of the
plane's wreckage-presum-
ably meaning its photo-
graphic crauipment and film
-"c.saa.blished , beyond a
doubt" that its mission was
Tl; filers-with whom the
U. "'.. .:- Force says it lost
rrc:ri contact, perhaps be-
cause of Communist jamming
.-were said to have admitted,
under int:rrogation that they
were in steady contact with
U. S. bases and "knew whare
they were throughout the en-
tire flight." The U. S., the
statements said, had ex-
pressed regret over the in-
cident and promised to avoid
further "transgressions,"
GRIM-FACED
CPYRGHT
ONLY ONE AMERICAN now remains in an
East German prison. He is Frederic Loba, 36,
of Altadena, Calif., sentenced to 2i/2 years last
October for helping refugees flee to freedom.
The three American fliers are free-and so is
a Jackson Heights opera singer who was in a
Red jail for 20 months. Her return was an-
other strange chapter in the shadowy story of
Iron Curtain hostages. Secretary of State Ru$lc
said yesterday that the straying off course of
the fliers' plane was "mysterious." So was the
simultaneous rdlc,Y.se of the forgotten singer.
N THE C~''y'Y AND STATE--
C"Spy" mystery. Only 36 hours after release from an
East Berlin prison, opera singer Gabrielle Hammerstein
was sitting at home in Jackson Heights in fine fettle de-
spite 19 months incarceration on charges of being a spy.
Details were vague, but she was arrested January, 1962
(she lived in West Berlin) when she drove into the East-
ern (Communist) Zone. She, was released as inexpli-
cably as she was arrested. The overall puzzle: Why is
Soviet Russia re?easing Americans charged as spies?
In Washington, Secretary
of State Dean Rusk repeated
he U. S. stand that the
B-66B had strayed over
ast Germany by mistake.
r. Rusk said he knew of no,
Gals or. conditions surround-
rig the fliers' release.
The two airmen, Capt.
avid I. Hollarid, 35, of Rol-
and, Mich., pilot of the
owned plane, and Capt. Mel-
in J. Kessler, 30, of Phila-
,hia, navigator, crossed
West Germany In a U. S.
sedan at the Helmstedt
ronier checkpoint. They
ere sma>A 1 ~,daPor lease 2000/08/27 CIA-RDP75-00149R0~
all of Sov a troops at the
or er crossing, which, ordi-
d I-4I
CPYRGHT
SINGER, TOO
By Maurice- C. Carroll
01 The N,rabt Tribune Stuff
Stuff
Mysteriously arrested in
East Berlin as a "spy" for the
West, Tried in secret. A
capti?,il 27 mo iths. Freed as
my;at?riousiy t?s she 'was ar-
re ted.
At home yes,erday in Jack-
. Heights, Queens, less
ilian 36 hour: after her re-
lease, buxom Gabrielle Hani-
,merstein, 39, told about her
chilling experience in boom.
ing good spirits that seemed
somehow as strange as her
mysterious reticences.
"I was a Icusy prisoner,"
she said with deep chuckle.
"They told me I was the
worst thing they ever en-
countered.
"I refused tc work-to aid
the Commuris, system.
"I refused to eat potatoes
they were pretty rotten-
even though our diet was
mostly liquid, and there were
some days when we had the
same soup all three meals."
CIIEEtFUL
She talked for reporters
and TV cameras with great
9004 cheer. An opera so-
prano, she even roared out a
few sample noes from ."Die
Valkyrie" that shoved the
needle on a sound man's
gauge out of sight.
But the stor,, she told In
those cheerful tones was of
strange and sorpetimes bru-
tal imprisonmc; it and it was
laced with area ~ of "no co.,,i-
ment" to protect, she said.
prisoners still i:i Communist
hands who w -,re "fighting
for our way of life."
Someone ventured the be-
lief that most p:ople arrested
as spies have :tctually been
'Sp
400 "4hid Miss
F ammerstein mysteriously.
74- wbole "91% M-6 jo.,
 Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000300410013-3
TWO AIRMEN RELEASED
CPYRGHT
Warily Is manned by East
Germans, and Red loud-
speakers blared martial band
music.
GRIM-FACED
Both men, grim - faced,
stared straight ahead.
From Helmstedt, Capts.:
Holland and Kessler'were
driven to nearby Hannover,
where they boarded a plane
for the U. S. Air Force base
at Wiesbaden. Still dressed
in their flight suits, they were
checked by doctors and fed a
hot meal during the flight.
Still silent and sober-faced
on arrival at Wiesbaden, the
two airmen were whisked
away immediately to Wies-
baden Air Force Hospital in
military sedans, without being
permitted to talk to newsmen.
An Air Force spokesman said
they would remain at the
hospital "for some time" for
observation.
The third member of the
RB-66's crew, Lt. Harold W.
Welch, 24, was freed by the
Soviets last Saturday in a
similar under-wraps transac-
tion. Lt. Welch, who suffered
a broken arm and leg, was
the only one of the three
crew members injured when
they bailed out of the plane
after it was hit by a Soviet
fighter 20 miles inside East
Germany on March 10.
WHERE?
Lt, Welch was picked up by
a U. S. Air orce ambulance
at the Soviet Army hospital
at Magdeburg, East Germany,
where he was being treated.
It was not disclosel yesterday
where his two companions
were held or where they were
picked up by the U. S. Army
sedan that brought them out
of East Germany.
U. S. military and diplo-
matic authorities in West
Germany Imposed a complete
news blackout on yesterday's
release, even refusing to con-
firm that it had taken place.
"I am not authorized to tell
you anything," one official
spokesman said. The clamp-
it was learned, was or-
"t red, from Washington.
The freeing of the two fliers
followed stiff diplomatic pres-
sure fr*ff 7d, Pb
tF
were released. The S. and
the Soviets currently are ne-
gotiating consular and cul-
tural exchange agreements
during a period of relative
"thaw" in their relations.
The Russians earlier had
hinted that the fliers might
be tried for espionage, in an
echo of the 1960 spy trial of
U-2 pilot Francis.. rary Pow-
ers. Thursday, hove ?er, U. 8.
officials conf.rme - ;hat the
two remaining all `mI n would
be released under arrange-
ments made through Anatoly
Dobrynin, Soviet Ambassador
to Washington.
PLEASED
In Johnson City, Tex.,
President Johnson expressed
gratification at the fliers' re-
lease and said he was pleased
"that this matter has been
sensibly settled."
In announcing the airmen's
release, both the Soviet news
agency Tass and -the East
German news agency ADN
e-emphasized the Communist
claim that the fliers had
committed espionage. The
Communist statements said
investigation had shown that
the R33-66B entered East
German air space "deliber-
ately, for purposes of military
reconnaissance."
The plane carried "equip-
ment for aerial photography
and special equipment for
military reconnaissance by
radiotechnical means, with
the reading of the instru-
ments recorded on film," the
statements said.
Despite this "espionage,"
the Reds said, the fliers were
being released because "the
U. S. government has ex-
pressed its regret over the
transgression and' has given
assurance that American
.authorities have received
strong orders not to commit
such transgressions in the
future."
There has been some spec-
ulation in Western quarters
that the RB-66B might, in-
deed, have inadvertently pho-
tographed Soviet Army ma-
neuvers in East Germany
after straying off-course In
its flight from a French base.
Mr. Rusk, while insisting in
his statement that the U. S.
had offered no concessions
for the fliers' return, added
that "we have taken addi-
tiopal measures to prevent
this kind of straying in the
OPERA SINGER OUT, TOO
CPYR
will be a "real shocker" she
said, will come out next
week, she promised, - after
she. talks with he proper
authorities." But she declined
to say who those authorities
might be.
She was arrested in Jan-
uary, 1962, while living in
West Berlin and studying
voice in 1:,,!- Berlin. "I had
just driven into the Eastern
sector when I was stopped..
Her car pulled over?
"I can't say exactly. But
they have a definite system.
It could happen to anybody."
With another booming laugh,
she added, "That's easy,
getting arrested in the So-
viet sector."
Then in August, after a
one-day secret trial, she was
sentenced to six years in
prison as a spy.
Except for the last two
weeks before her release, her
jail stay was rough. "I was
treated quite brutally }t
tines. . . there were brain
washing attempts. . . I was
asked to do things that, as
an American, I couldn't
do.
Someone asked what lang-
uages she spoke and she said
English, German, French
"and now, of course, I can
speak Russian... enough to
get along in prison; anyway."
Meanwhile, her mother, Dr.
Gertrude Rosenhain, who fled
her native Germany during
.the Hitler years, was working
through lawyers in East
Germany and West Germany
to get her daughter released.
Suddenly on Thursday,
was put in a car and driven
to the Heinrich Heine check-
Herald Trlbune-UPI
Gabrielle Hammerstein as
slie was interviewed here
yesterday,
point on tic Berlin border. "I
saw an American car, the
first I hac seen in more than
two years. Then I walked over
to it. My mother was inside,
along witI-i some one from the
American consulate. We drove
away together."
Together, mother and
daughter flew home to New
York Thursday night. Yes-
terday; with great good hu-
mor, th yewclcomcd the press
in the combination apart-
ment-office that Dr. Rosen-
hain maintains in a six-story
apartment house at 35-40
82d St., Jackson Heights.
Dr. .os=nhain told of try-
ing to free her daughter "as
soon as _a learned she had
been kidnaped by the Rus-
sians." 'Paice during the time
of captivity, she was able to
visit her daughter, she said.
Wa'e 2QQOIO8Y27vasCli
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with the Soviet Union would had wandered away from
be jeopardized unless the two its flight plan.