Holger H.

Memorial plaque , Stahnsdorfer Damm, in Kleinmachnow

Holger H. (* 1971 ; † January 22, 1973 in Berlin ) was the youngest person to be killed on the Berlin Wall at just 15 months . He suffocated when his parents fled to West Berlin via the Checkpoint Bravo border crossing .

Holger H. was the son of Ingrid and Klaus H., who had made an unsuccessful attempt to escape across the Baltic Sea at the age of 17 . The renewed escape with his wife and son was supposed to take place in the truck of a West Berlin friend. The couple hid in boxes on the loading area. Ingrid, 20 years old at the time, was in one box with 15-month-old Holger, and Klaus, then 23 years old, in another.

When the baby started crying, the mother tried in vain to calm it down and finally covered its mouth. At that time Holger suffered from otitis media and bronchitis , so that he could not breathe through his nose and suffocated. The resuscitation attempts initiated after the successful border crossing were unsuccessful.

Holger H. was buried in Berlin-Marienfelde .

literature

• Hans-Hermann Hertle, Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual . Ch. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .

Web links

Commons : Holger H. (Wall victim)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Brief portrait on www.chronik-der-mauer.de
• Young, innocent, dead , Tagesspiegel article from August 13, 2009