On March 29, 1974, Kukuczka, a 38-year-old firefighter, entered the Polish embassy on Unter den Linden boulevard in East Berlin carrying a briefcase.
The father-of-three falsely said he had a bomb. He demanded permission to leave for West Berlin.
Stasi officers gave him an exit visa and some West German money and escorted him to Friedrichstraße station, where trains still ran west of the city.
Kukuczka passed several border checks inside the station. But before he reached the West Berlin platform, a man approached him from behind and shot him in the back.
Students from Hesse, West Germany, also witnessed the murder. Some people gave evidence at the trial that they saw a man shoot Kukuchica before “men in uniform” blocked the passageway.
Details of the incident were uncovered by historians who tracked down relevant files in the Stasi archives. Some of the shredded documents linking Naumann to the murders were reconstructed using a specially built machine.
Kukuchica’s family has never officially heard of his fate. His ashes were given to his wife a few weeks after his murder.
The case went to trial after Poland issued a European arrest warrant for Naumann in 2021.
These trials, like those of surviving Holocaust perpetrators, have been considered to be of special historical significance in Germany.
Naumann always maintained his innocence. His lawyer said there was no evidence he committed murder.
East Germany was created in the area of Germany occupied by the Soviet Union after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. While it was a communist dictatorship, West Germany, which emerged from the American, British, and French occupation zones, was a capitalist democracy. .
In 1991, the two countries were unified to form modern-day Germany.
