The lonely American: speaking with a US defector to East Germany

As thousands of people celebrated the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, Victor Grossman feared he might be arrested. Brett Neely meets the American defector who fled to communist East Germany after deserting from the US Army.

Appropriately for a lifetime leftist, Victor Grossman tells his story while sitting in his favourite easy chair in his apartment on Berlin's Karl Marx Allee.

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 81-year-old recalls how he was one of the few people in the now reunited German capital not celebrating on November 9, 1989.

900 words remaining. Click to read the [thelocal="http://www.thelocal.de/23003/">full article[/thelocal].

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Move to North Korea then pal.

No attempt to be German after so long? Over stayed his 'welcome' a long time ago.

This guy, not Demjanjuk, should be on trial.

This guy joined left wing organizations, then lies about it when they want to question him. He deserts his own country and then hides in what was then considered the enemy and he still thinks himself as an American?????
I think he gave up that right to think that he was one of us the moment he walked up on the other bank of the Danube. Surprised we gave him his citizenship back. But then again, could one really believe some one with such a record would be forthright and honest? I certainly don't think so.
Now he is a lonely old man living his last days wondering his decisions in life. Well buddy, you made you own bed and now have to lie in it. Amazing you had the balls to be printed in a newspaper read mostly by Americans living in Germany.
Pay attention to some of the people your age who made unwise choices and are now covering todays newspaper headlines around the globe for those choices. Be lucky you aren't one of them, but don't think you are one of us either you Turncoat!

What gets me is how capitalist he is. A book tour to the country he deserted to promote his memoirs? How much more of an opportunist can he be? Not only a turncoat, but two-faced.

In his defense, he's a Yankee.

According to the article, the US Army has forgiven him. I find hateful comments directed against Mr. Grossman to be an indicator of how correct he was in doing what he allegedly did.

User smitsch1949 pretty much hit the nail on the head here. The level of bitterness and spite present in the comments alone prove beyond any doubt that we deserved exactly what we got.
Given the behavior of the United States since the fall of the wall, I'm honestly surprised he would even want to consider himself American.

Hmm. He defected because he MIGHT have had to spend UP TO 5 years in prison for his involvement in a few leftist organizations... So he spent 57 years in a country he did not feel at home in.
Uh huh.
A 'political refugee'? Doesn't pass any tests of logic.
What exactly did this fugitive and active US military man tell his 'hosts' during his two weeks in the Soviet jail in Austria, and his two months being interrogated by Soviets in Potsdam?
And the Russian who named him... worked his ego. The translation becomes "Victorious Big Man" and is a joke which he completely fell for.
I have no sympathy for him or his story.

That is a great story, and I was almost, for a short minute, pleased with The Local.

Fascinating story. I'll file it along with the lackeys who defected to North Korea. Low level soldiers with discipline problems.

I feel sorry for this guy in regards to his political refugee status. The McCarthy era is not a shining moment in US history.

However, someone trying to peacefully influence change in their representative government does not get paranoid and tell his parents prior to reporting to the draft that he would send coded messages to them should his status be discovered or come into question. Nor would someone live in fear for three months waiting for the military to finally act on his membership to these organizations. (Taken from the first few pages of his book).

Do I think he would undermine the US government and help his "comrades" given the chance? Yes. Do I think he held a position in the US Army as a Pfc working as a supply clerk in the motor pool to affectively gain access and pass secrets to the Russians? No.

Personally I think he is a weak little man too dumb to find a legitimate way out of the draft (he was ivy league educated at the time). He was too cowardly to report to his hearing in the 50's and too cowardly to turn himself into American authorities in the 90's before they granted him forgiveness. Or possibly he accepted the draft as an opportunity to assit his "comrades?"

I just wish he would admit he was given his privileged life in the East only because it was good propaganda. On the inverse I think it speaks leagues to show that after the wall came down he was given the opportunity to "capitalize" on his own story, something that would not have happened under his cherished East German government.

I'm disappointed he was given a US Passport. But I suppose the greater message here is that we have to forgive the past or we will never go forward.

I can understand defecting to the East as an alternative to five years in prison because of the persecution of communists. If it was the other way round and a russian intellectual was being persecuted for his views on social democracy and fled to the west when threatened with prison, we'd all think it was admirable.

Equally admirable that the U.S. gave him his passport back (and that he took it) .

I have a sneaken suspicion that if this story is investigated a little more, one might find that nobody was going to do anything to him. He only used persecution as an excuse to desert. The nice thing about this is most non americans don't like or respect him cause he's american which being american I don't agree with that but if that hate can be used on him thats good. But the other half of the coin is us americans who are the greatest people in world by the way, won't give him any respect due to him being a traitor and a deserter. If one thinks i'm wrong just look at words people write on this, as you can see the non americans seem to focus their hate on fact that he' american and only that, and if you look at the comments from those who look to be american, they focus their dislike for this guy do to him being a desrter and a traitor.