Lefty's Playbook

One can only imagine the intense emotional stress experienced by Peter Fechter as he prepared for his imminent escape. After all, failure was not an option. Even though his existence was miserable before, the punishment that would follow if he were captured would be tremendously worse. And even worse than that, he could be wounded in the process and still end up captured. To add to the sum of fears, the guards were not known for their humane treatment of prisoners attempting escape. Their cold manner and complete lack of empathy was reinforced by their reputation. The guards would just as soon shoot at an escapee as they would a clay pigeon.

Yet, conversely, to Peter, the thought of freedom edged out the thoughts of injury, punishment, and even death. To stay was to remain in perpetual misery; to escape was to taste freedom, even if temporary. It is perhaps with these thoughts in mind that Peter and a fellow prisoner, as they were hiding out in a carpentry workshop near the prison wall, waited for the optimal moment to begin their mad dash to freedom. In what must have been an emotional waterfall of intense self-examination and desperation of unimaginable proportions, they jumped out of a window and ran across the so-called death-strip (a strip running between the main prison wall and a parallel fence). Then came the crucial moment: climbing over a wall of concrete and barbed wire. With this last rite of passage also came visibility, which in turn would assuredly draw gunfire from the guards, whose willingness to maim or kill was based on fact, not legend…