The New Yorker:

A short documentary from 2020, titled “Betrayal,” tells the story of how the flight of a spy from East Germany affected the family members he left behind.

By Sean Lavery
August 5, 2020

The Cold War, and the international politics that it established, have been full of high-profile defections: Rudolf Nureyev dashing to French security officers at a Paris airport, in 1961; a North Korean military officer racing over the line of demarcation, first by car and then on foot, in 2017; a handful of Cuban baseball players flying to the States to sign with the major leagues. Such moments leave a strong impression in national consciences—and can serve as powerful political capital. These instances of great personal risk and sacrifice are one of the ways that world powers keep score. The short documentary “Betrayal” looks at the fallout from one such defection from another angle, telling the story of how the flight of an East German spy affected the family members he left behind.

In January of 1979, Werner Stiller was working for the East German Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, better known as the Stasi, when he secured fake exit visas, walked through the checkpoint at Friedrichstrasse, and boarded the subway. He had been acting as a double agent, dropping photocopied Stasi documents for the West German intelligence service. Shortly after Stiller’s defection, Bob Schieffer, then an anchor for “CBS Evening News,” reported that Western intelligence officials had identified five East German spies working in West Germany—all were arrested, Schieffer reported, based on information that Stiller had provided. Ultimately, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun, nearly a hundred spies were identified, and seventeen spent time in prison, based on intelligence that Stiller shared. Western intelligence services, determining that it wasn’t safe for Stiller to remain near the German border, spirited him away to the United States, where he was resettled by the C.I.A.

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