May 4, 1963. Army Capt. Alfred Svenson was assigned to the 2nd Medium Tank Battalion, 1st Cavalry, of the 3rd Armored Division, northwest of Frankfurt. He donned his full dress uniform, got into an Army jeep and drove it across the barricaded border between East and West Germany, near the town of Kleinensee. On the East German side, he surrendered to authorities and asked for asylum.
West German customs officials said Capt. Svenson drove a "devious route," leaving his jeep at one point to cut a path through East German barbed wire. Then he steered the jeep through a camouflaged safe strip between Communist mine fields.
The New York Times reported that, according to East German sources, Capt. Svenson was being interrogated by Soviet and East German military and security authorities.
The captain was quickly identified as a former resident of North Scranton. Born in Lithuania, he and his widowed mother, Antonia Svenson, escaped that country to Germany in the aftermath of World War II. They later came to the United States and settled in Scranton where they lived in an apartment on North Main Avenue.
Mrs. Svenson took a job in the lace division of Scranton Corp. A friend, Cynthia Runas, who occasionally dated Alfred, described him as "a very normal type, not exactly outgoing, not exactly withdrawn" and "very intelligent." The Svensons "often talked about how wonderful it was to be in America," Miss Runas said after hearing of his defection.
Alfred graduated from the University of Scranton and, in 1954, joined the Army. His mother left Scranton in 1960 for Washington, D.C., where she took a job at the Library of Congress. Miss Runas, who taught science in Scranton, said that Mrs. Svenson had expected her son home that March. Both were supposed to return to Scranton for a visit. "She couldn't understand why he hadn't arrived," Miss Runas said of Mrs. Svenson. "She didn't indicate there was anything wrong."
The year that followed his crossing into Communist territory brought conflicting reports. Army officials at Heidelberg, Germany, revealed that Capt. Svenson spoke Russian and five other languages. They also said the 30-year-old man had served as an intelligence officer. "His access to security information was that normally available to an officer in his position," an Army spokesman said.
On Sept. 3, the news agency Reuters reported that Capt. Svenson appeared at its East Berlin bureau the previous night and said he had tried to cross the border into West Berlin several times, only to be caught by the Communist police each time.
It was the first that anyone in the West had seen or heard from Capt. Svenson since he crossed the border in May. He was bruised and bleeding and complained of being badly treated by East German police.
The news agency relayed the information to American Army officials, who attempted to make contact with Capt. Svenson. They were unsuccessful. An Army spokesman said U.S. officials had no doubt that the man who went to the Reuters office was Capt. Svenson, based on information supplied to them by correspondent Jack Altmann.
Then on Nov. 1, United Press International released a story that the man was given a minor editorial job with the East German radio and said he would work to inform Americans about communism. He denied that he had been mistreated by the East Germans or that he had tried to escape.
On May 7, 1964, East Germany announced that it had expelled Capt. Svenson on the grounds that he had committed criminal offenses. They did not specify what offenses. The Army said that Capt. Svenson was taken to a hospital for a checkup while his case was being investigated.
Next week, the local history column will examine the details of Capt. Alfred Svenson's court martial.
CHERYL A. KASHUBA is a freelance writer specializing in local history. Contact the writer: localhistory@timesshamrock.com