Dec. 27, 1962 - Five more East German refugees escaped to West Berlin unnoticed by communist border guards today, bringing to 14 the number who have fled since Christmas. Four men crossed the border early today, and another escaped last night. Eight others crashed the border yesterday in a 10-ton bus protected with homemade armor plating. Today, the bus’s 40-year-old owner told a press conference he and the others had fled to escape the misery of life in shortage-plagued communist East Germany. “We didn’t want to be heroes or martyrs,” he said. “The food in the communist zone is very bad. There is almost no meat or sausage. People are spreading mustard on bread to give it some taste. We chose the Christmas holidays for our flight because we thought there would not be as many trucks blocking the checkpoint and because we knew there would not be as many communist guards as usual.”
