European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Associated Presse astern Europe s old guard communist leaders led lives largely out of View of the common people showing themselves mainly in carefully orchestrated Public occasions. But the revolutions that have toppled them Laid Bare their often luxurious lifestyles with an Odd common footnote a love of Hunting. Or Hunting of a sort. Many of them it turns out were proud big game killers who eagerly exhibited their trophies and demanded copious Praise for their supposed prowess. But it was a Brand of Hunting that bore Little i resemblance to sport for the now toppled or dead leaders the Hunts were staged spectacles calculated i bloodletting in which skill or Luck played scant part. Romania s Nicolae Ceausescu. Bulgaria s Todor i Zsivkov Hungary s Janos Kadar East Germany s Erich i Honecker several High ranking czechoslovak officials and the yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito who died in 1980, were All enthusiastic Hunters. Czechoslovak game officials Tell of private Hunting retreats of helicopter flights to favorite shooting grounds of officials who rolled Down the windows of limousines to make their kills. Real Hunters considered it animal murder the czechoslovak news Agency ctr said. Ctr quoted unidentified officials of the Hunters association As saying this Hunting elite not Only spent thousands of dollars but did nothing to respect the traditions and ethics of  in East Germany the now ousted Honecker former Premier Willi Stop and their top lieutenants used at least 30 different Hunting areas in the country reserved for High communist officials the West German Magazine Stern reported. Honecker s country estate included a luxurious Lodge at Drewitz near Neu Brandenburg located in a 27,000 / acre forested area off limits to the Public. East German Forest rangers assigned to the area said Honecker and the others sometimes gunned Down Deer wild pig and other animals at feeding stations or used Bright lights at night to Blind their prey Stern said. Forest rangers and Security agents would drive the game out into open areas so the officials could get a Clear shot West Germany s Bild newspaper said. Most of this activity took place Well out of the Public Eye. But in 1977, Bucharest was the site of a strange exhibit the game trophies of communist leaders. Half a million people turned out to see it. Dominating the Entrance to the Hall was a huge Brown Bear said to have been shot by Ceausescu who was credited with setting a world record by bagging it. Altogether 108 of Ceausescu s trophies were exhibited including Bear skins and skulls wild boar fangs Stag and Roebuck horns together with his medals for the kills. Bulgaria s Todor Zsivkov ousted in november was hailed at the Bucharest exhibit for bringing Down a world record sized Stag in the mid-1970s, and its Antlers were displayed. The exhibit also said Tito had taken a grand prix for an Alpine Goat shot in Yugoslavia and that Kadar had set a Hunting record with his kill of a Roe Deer. Gen. Ion Pace a a romanian senior counterintelligence officer who defected to the United states in 1978, later wrote about the Hunts staged for Ceausescu. Small armies of Forest rangers All around the country did nothing but prepare his Hunts he said in his Book red horizons. They tied Down half a dead horse in places where bears were known to look for water at Daybreak or after Sundown and then they watched the bait wrote Pace a. When in due course a Bear arrived Ceausescu would be quickly summoned to make the kill equipped with a. Special Rifle fitted with a night scope Pace a said. On i Christmas Day 1989, toppled by a popular revolution i Ceausescu was executed by firing squad together with 1 his wife Elena. Discarded children parents move to the West by Marc Fisher Washington Post he Berlin Wall opened and Werner Conrad moved West discarding his old life an East Berlin apartment shift work in a factory and his son. Last month Conrad a 36-year-old widower showed up at a City Home for neglected children and deposited Stefan his 12-year-old. The father said he was off to West Berlin and would return for the boy when he found a new homa. A few weeks later Conrad telephoned from West Berlin. He would not be coming Back the father told City welfare workers. You keep Stefan. By itself Conrad s Case is startling. But Stefan Conrad is Only one of hundreds of East German children left behind in the continuing exodus to the economic Opportunity and political stability of West Germany. Almost 350,000 East germans moved to the West last year and the migration continues at a rate of More than 1,500 a Day. And each week a few More children Are abandoned in empty apartments left at friends houses or deposited at local child welfare offices. East Berlin reports More than 120 such cases. Nationwide figures Are not available but in one German democratic Republic City Magdeburg 80 children have been left behind. Welfare officials indicate perhaps a third of the children were already in troubled circumstances before the parents left. But the officials make Clear that before the exodus abandonment was almost unheard of not even a listed category in the spectrum of child abuse cases in the Cdr. I have tried for months now to understand it said Ruth Barmann Deputy director of East Berlin s youth assistance department. It is a contradiction. These people say they cannot stand to live Here and they must find a new life. Then they turn around and Trust this state that they could not function under with their most valuable belonging. These Are not Normal  the Janusz Korczak children s Home is a seven Story orphanage in a Bleak Field of Flimsy once White High Rise apartment buildings on the outskirts of East Berlin. Children run through the dark hallways screaming at the lop of their lungs. Five 10-year-Olds hide in a sixth Story Balcony waiting to dump pails of water on unsuspecting passersby. About a dozen of the 150 children who live there have been discarded by parents who moved out of the country according to a worker at the Home who insisted on anonymity. One of the abandoned children is Stefan. He is not a Happy boy. We be tried to explain the situation to him a worker at the Home said. And the other children have tried to console him but what can you say to a child who has been thrown away Stefan is not an easy boy to get along with Barmann said. But that is no excuse to leave him Here for other people to bring up. We cannot replace individual care in a children s  the Case file which Barmann made available saying there was no restriction against making it Public shows that Stefan s father took his other two sons aged 10 and 13, to the West. But because he considered Stefan a problem child Conrad left the boy in the state s care. East Berlin authorities had no rules to govern such cases. Contact with West Berlin s government was virtually unimaginable before last fall. Now the youth office needed the help of West Berlin police and welfare workers to find missing parents and urge them to take responsibility for their children. In the Conrad Case West Berlin youth workers worked with immigration officials and located the father. They visited him in Early january and Conrad agreed to take Back his son. This East German family loads the car with belongings and children Lor the big move to the wet. Some families however leave their children behind. As of the Middle of the month Conrad had not yet arrived at the children s Home. Stefan refuses to believe his father will return. If he does the governments of this divided cily have agreed to watch Over the Conrad Home to make certain the boy is cared for properly. Most of the abandoned children Are quite Young often babies who were left with neighbors by parents who said they would be Back in a few Days but never  ask where is my Mother " Barmann said. The older ones we Tell them their parents Are probably in the West and we re looking for them. If it s a 3 year old and no one has visited in eight weeks it s very difficult. So we lie to them. We say Mother is sick we try to distract them Wilh other things with j 3-year-old, you can get away with  not always. Nurse Constanze Mach 22, left her son Christoph 3, daughter Katharina 2, and son Suellen. 10 months for a Job in a West German Hospital she told he West German Magazine Stern. Now whenever Katharina sees an adult she begins to cry according to Waltraut Sieweke. Director of the Home where the 2-year-old lives. When she sees Tho bus slopping outside the children s Home she watches and asks mama Mach told Stern she moved to the West for material reasons. It was a sudden  there was a Boyfriend and the uncertainly of East Germany s future and Mach said she had convinced herself Christoph s father the other two children were fathered by another Boyfriend would take in the children. He has not. Some weeks ago Mach who has not visited her children since she moved to the West wrote a letter to her grandmother. She said she did not want to know anything More about her children. Of course with a teary Eye i look Back and Hope that my future will be better she wrote. Actually i am convinced of it. I have not yet regretted my step. I think often of you and Hope that you can understand me a Little  some of the parents who abandoned children were alcoholics and some already had been under observation by child welfare officials who Are assigned to visit the Home of every Newborn in the country to Check that mothers Are providing proper nutrition and  Berlin authorities have tried to reunite Parent and child by any available Means. In about 60 cases they have succeeded in sending the children to live with parents in West Germany. But in 11 cases social workers tracked Down the parents and were told to find someone to adopt the children. They say they would like to build a new existence but without children Barmann said. In other cases Barmann s office has found other relatives willing to take in the children. But 40 abandoned children especially the older ones who Are less attractive to couples interested in adoption remain in East Berlin childrens Homes. Dozens More the government is not sure How Many Are in Homes around the country. It s a terribly tense situation Barmann said. So Many people leave the country and they say they Are doing it for their children. But these people. Who would have believed it nuary22,1990 stars and stripes Page 15