STROLLING THROUGH THE IRON CURTAIN

By WILLIAM BRIDGES
United Press International

BERLIN, Sept. 17 [1960]—Like more than 8,000 West Germans in recent days, I approached Communist police this week to ask about getting a special visa to visit East Berlin.

My American passport was hidden away in a pocket as I asked the “people’s policeman” at the Brandenburg Gate where to get the visa, which the Communists have been requiring for all West German visitors going to East Berlin.

“Are you a foreigner?” he asked, smiling faintly and inspecting my button-down shirt and American suit. After a moment, he pointed to a columned building at the left of the gate and said, “Second floor.”

Six uniformed East German policemen were loafing on the first floor, drinking milk and lemon soda.

One pointed me upstairs to a small room where three more policemen were questioning two women and a man.

On their desks were propaganda pamphlets entitled, “The People’s Plan for Germany” and “Globke and the Eradication of the Jews.” (Hans Globke, aide to West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is a favorite Communist target because he wrote a commentary to Hitler’s racial laws in the 1930s.)

My interrogator was polite, a bit unkempt, and looked about 19 years old. I told him I was an American living in West Germany and asked if I needed the new visa.

Not at all, he explained carefully. Americans need only their passports. I got the puzzled smile again as I left.

The suspicious policeman was still outside, and this time I handed him the passport. He riffled through it and said, “Where are you going?”

“East Berlin,” I said, since I was facing that way. He shrugged and waved me on.

Whatever the future holds, a not-too-bright American can still walk whistling through the Iron Curtain here.