Giuseppe Savoca
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Giuseppe Savoca (born April 22, 1968 in Berlin ; † June 15, 1974 there ) was one of the youngest victims of the Berlin Wall at the age of six .
Life
Savoca was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg as the son of an Italian immigrant family and was an Italian citizen.
When he was playing with others on the Gröbenufer in Berlin on June 15, 1974, shortly after 10:00 a.m., looking for a lost toy, he fell into the Spree , which was part of East Berlin here.
The event was observed from the Oberbaum Bridge by a member of the GDR border troops . This notified the NVA boat company. A border troop patrol boat also on site did not respond to the passers-by's calls for help and continued its journey to the east port . There the boat received the order and returned to the scene of the accident at 10:25. NVA divers recovered the body of Savoca around 11:00 a.m.
The log entry of the GDR post reads: “When fishing for objects, the child lost his balance and fell into the water. It paddled briefly on the surface of the water and sank with accompanying blistering. ... [The border guard noticed] no activities by the people on the Gröbenufer to rescue the boy ... [and saw no boat] ” . According to a superior of the post, a control boat was at the scene of the accident. He stated that the border troops “had been told by acclamation from a male person on the West Berlin bank that a child had fallen into the Spree. Based on the fact that, according to his statements, he was repeatedly provoked in the past by citizens of West Berlin to initiate rescue measures without any reason, that there were no air bubbles on the surface of the water and the anglers on the Gröbenufer did not react, he accepted a provocation and drove on after a short stop ” .
The boy's parents traveled to East Berlin on the evening of the day he died to identify the body. The East German public prosecutor released the body two days later.
At least four other children ( Andreas Senk (1960–1966), Cengaver Katrancı (presumably 1964–1972), Siegfried Kroboth (1964–1972) and Çetin Mert ) died on the Gröbenufer during the division of Germany under similar circumstances.
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989. A biographical handbook. Edited by the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans W. Korfmann: Mr. D. and the young victims of the Wall , Frankfurter Rundschau , January 20, 2010, p. 13.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Savoca, Giuseppe |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian boy who drowned on the wall in Berlin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 22, 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1974 |
| Place of death | Berlin |