---  Postcards from Washington D.C. ---

During my recent trip to Washington DC, I attended a reception at the Bulgarian Embassy commemorating the Revolutions of 1989 and the end of the Cold War. It was a pleasure to have a photo taken with Francis Gary Powers Jr. and the host, Bulgarian Ambassador, Her Excellency Madam Elena Poptodorova. This event was also co-sponsored by the Ambassadors to the United States from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Francis Gary Powers Jr., Ambassador Madam Elena Poptodorowa and Werner I. Juretzko.

I also visited Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to John F. Kennedy.  The Kennedy grave site is an awe inspiring tribute to one of the greatest Presidents that have served the United States. 

While I was at Arlington, I also visited the gravesite of my old buddy, Francis Gary Powers, with whom I shared a KGB/Stasi prison cell, he in Moscow and I in East- Berlin.   As you know, Francis Gary Powers is the American U-2 pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union during a reconnaissance mission on May 1st 1960.

It is interesting to note that during my 6 year tenure in Stasi prisons (1955 – 1961), the two best meals that I received occurred shortly after the Bay of Pigs invasion and the day that Francis Gary Powers was shot down.  During these two historical events, my captors were elated by their perceived victories over the “blood-thirsty, war-mongering Wall Street capitalists”.  My captors were celebrating that American imperialists got what they so rightfully deserved from the people of Cuba and the solidarity of socialist workers all over the world. 

During these celebratory events, my Stasi captors opened up their kitchen to me and my fellow prisoners and we were allowed to have a full meal that was well prepared.

While I was in Washington, I also visited the display at the International Spy Museum regarding G-2 US Army Intelligence operative Werner Markus and Stanislaw Swoboda.  In performing intelligence gathering for G-2, I used the alias of Werner Markus when I was in East Germany and I used the alias of Stanislaw Swoboda when I was in Poland. 

 The display at the Museum includes a plaque that contains my prisoner discharge papers along with a 4 minute audio tape coming from within the East German "Trabant" automobile that is also on display.  The audio tape tells the events of the “rise & fall of a Western agent”.   The voice on the audio tape has a very heavy accent but don’t worry – if you can understand me you will not have any problem understanding the voice on the audio tape.

                                           The voice you hear ---- is mine !

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