AUSTRIA: News from Two

Since 1945, the Russians have kidnaped at least 800 Viennese for crimes ranging from “spying for the Western powers” to “sabotage” (e.g., dropping a typewriter on a Russian factory office floor). Again & again the Austrian government has asked the Russians for news of these missing people. Last week the Russians released the first official word on any of the 800. The word concerned two men.

One was Paul Katscher, a railway official seized by Russian officers in 1947, while he was negotiating with the occupation powers for the return of “liberated” freight cars to Austria. Reported Moscow: Katscher, convicted of sabotage, had died in a Soviet jail June 9, 1949.

The other man was Anton Marek, senior police inspector and a staunch anti-Nazi, last seen in 1948 entering Soviet occupation headquarters in answer to a telephone summons. Reported Moscow: Marek, now 65, is serving 20 years “for espionage.” For his bedridden wife, Russian officials had a letter scribbled in pencil on plain paper: “I am a prisoner in the Soviet Union. I am in fairly good physical condition, though I have to work here in the jail. I am longing to see you. My fondest love to our son and friends.”

There was still no word about the others.