Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.

And then after two months, sent me to this town in the GDR, where they sent all, or nearly all, of deserters from Western armies.

15 Americans, about 10 Britons, about 6 or 7 French.

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In this episode, we speak with Victor Grossman, a 24-year-old American serving in the US Army, who in 1952 swam across the Danube River in Austria to the Soviet zone.

He ended up in East Germany with other Western defectors and has lived in Germany ever since.

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Whilst some of you will disagree with Victor's views, his first-hand account of his experiences is an important part of Cold War history.

We start my Cold War conversation with Victor telling us about his early life in the United States.

Yes, I was born in New York City in 1928 and in a sort of a middle class family.

My father was an art director. My mother was later become a librarian librarian and it was a time in especially in New

York in the late 30s when a large portion of the city was very very left-wing

oriented and so was I right from the start in fact I think six years old, I was already a red or a leftist.

And somehow stayed stubborn and never got over it. In any case, I went to many different schools. We moved around a lot.

And I went to nine different schools, seven public schools, two private schools, almost never more than a year or two in any one school.

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