European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A German agony victims of shifting loyalties Margaret Bechler once a death cell inmate in the now defunct German democratic Republic with a new edition of the Book she wrote in 1978about her ordeals under the communist regime. A by Hanns Neuerburg associated press the Quot answer Quot that Margret Bechler had been waiting on for decades arrived one week after the Berlin Wall came Down. It was a letter from her son the one she had not seen since she was led off in Handcuffs almost half a Century ago leaving him and his crying sister behind. It provided a postscript to Bechler a 1978 Book waiting for an answer which told of the nightmarish time she spent As a death cell inmate in East German prisons while her turncoat husband sentenced to death by the nazis Rose to Power in the East German regime. It is the Story of the Loyal wife of a nazi officer who converted to communism and became an East German general. It is a Story of a woman who wanted to save her children and wound up accused of causing the wartime death of a communist underground fighter. And it is the Story of the agony she lived through in years of solitary confinement disavowed by her husband and without word from her children in the Topsy Turvy world of changing loyalties in postwar Germany. The 11 the edition just out in Germany includes a postscript that tells of her son s shocked letter after he finally read the Book that had been banned in East Germany and of their first meeting in West Berlin. It also tells of the continued silence of Bechler a daughter. Quot she has probably by now lost the Job she had with the communist party in East Berlin Quot Bechler said in an interview at her Home near Hamburg. A she declines to read the Book she told her brother because she does not want to Burden  not included in the postscript were Quot love letters Quot from her husband As she bitterly described them. After 47 years of silence Bernhard Bechler 79, retired general of the now disbanded East German Quot National people s army Quot wrote to his wife last january the wife whom he had officially declared dead in 1946 so he could marry a communist functionary. Quot i was under pressure was sometimes being blackmailed Quot he explained in one letter. Quot i cannot describe the details but i lived in a Maze which others set up for me and from which i found no Way  in 1984, reached by phone by a West German television reporter Bechler dismissed his wife s Book As Quot lies Quot. Quot i Don t know whether he Ever read it Quot she said. Quot yes i had Access to the manuscript even before it was published Quot the retired general said in a separate interview at his Home near Berlin. Quot the Legal department of the East German ministry of state gave me a copy of the manuscript before the Book was published and asked me whether i wanted them to do something about it. I said there was no need. But they must have had someone in the publishing  asked to elaborate on the pressure he said he faced Rechlor said he was Quot under constant surveillance Quot by his second wife who died last november. A i was too cowardly to protest Quot he added. He also said that his previous marriage to a woman held responsible for the death of a communist underground fighter made him a Quot Security risk Quot for the regime and forced him to be cautious. In addition he said the soviets knew that As a wehrmacht aide Bechler once routinely passed on Hitler s order to liquidate All political Quot commissars Quot of the red army. While they realized he was not directly involved it could have been easily held against him if he were not careful. A wehrmacht career officer Bechler was captured in the 1943 Battle of Stalingrad. More than 90,000 German soldiers marched into soviet Captivity that Winter Day. Only about 5,000 survived to see the fatherland again. Among them was Bechler until then a Loyal Soldier and a Loyal nazi. But he changed sides while a prisoner he said later because of the traumatic experience at Stalingrad where Hitler had ordered the outgunned out manned 6th army to fight Quot to the last  Bechler joined the Moscow based National committee for free Germany comprising communists and disillusioned German officers that sought to demoralize the wehrmacht. News of his defection was broadcast by soviet propaganda stations. The communist underground in Germany focused on his wife in the Hope of gaining an ally. She received hundreds of Anonymous letters denouncing the Hitler regime and was called on by mysterious visitors. Quot knowing him i did not believe them when they told me that my husband had changed sides Quot she recalls. Quot i thought this was a provocation that could endanger my family. I thought above ail of my two  under the nazi wartime Rule even close relatives of people found guilty of Quot anti state activities risked being sent to a concentration Camp. To Ward off any suspicion of being a communist sympathizer she handed the letters to police who placed her Home under surveillance. When another uninvited visitor arrived he was arrested and executed in 1944. Quot like Many others of my generation i grew up with this kind of patriotism that seems inextricably linked with thinking in terms of Black or White enemy or Friend Quot explained the Silver haired author now 76. The nazis sentenced her husband to death in absent a for High treason. When word of his defection passed through wehrmacht channels the local commander urged her to divorce him. She stubbornly refused it meant ostracism for her and her children reduced food rations exclusion from Public schools and other sanctions. Bernhard Bechler returned to Germany with the victorious red army before his wife was arrested in june 1945 and charged with murder in the execution of her communist visitor. R Bechler told friends later he gave up an attempt to locate his wife after he was told that she was a prisoner of the soviets. Their two children whom she had left with friends got a new Mother with his second wife. For Margret Bechler the arrest meant 11 agonizing years in seven prisons. She was among the last inmates of Buchenwald the former nazi concentration Camp used by the soviets for another five years. Mass Graves recently discovered in East Germany suggest that thousands failed to survive soviet run internment Camps. In 1950, she was turned Over to East German jurisdiction and sentenced to death As being responsible for the wartime execution of her communist visitor. Only six of the 32 prisoners convicted then for alleged War crimes escaped execution including Bechler the Only woman in the group. She was released in 1956 and moved to the West. She became a teacher Quot so i could be with children again after i had lost my  among those helping her was her husbands brother a highly decorated former wehrmacht general turned preacher in West Germany. Her husband had Long severed All links with his family including his brother. Through a Friend Bechler obtained the East German address of her son who also had become a teacher. A letter she wrote was sent Back with a Curt note that drove her Quot to sheer despair she recalls. Quot we have the Best possible Mother since 1945,&Quot said the typewritten note signed by her son Hans Bernhard and daughter Adelheid. It added ominously that Quot competent authorities Quot would be alerted Quot in Case of further molestation by  Quot you must realize that we were forced to sign this letter Quot her son told her after their reunion. Her son has already visited her three times in West Germany and she has visited him and his family North of Berlin. He also keeps in touch with his sickly father. Quot that a a Good thing Quot Bechler says. Quot i done to want him to lose his father because he found his  Page 16 a the stars and stripes saturday october 20,1990