Personal memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which he compares to the Ukraine Crisis

At almost 71, Wolfgang Niedecken has already experienced many international crises. Now the BAP singer looks at Russia’s attack on Ukraine – and draws parallels to the fears of his childhood. They are memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when the superpowers USA and the Soviet Union were on the brink of war because of the planned stationing of Russian missiles on the Caribbean island.

“I was eleven at the time and at a boarding school,” said Niedecken in an interview with the “dpa” in his hometown of Cologne. “And then the big ones were suddenly talking about the Third World War. So I got scared and wrote to my parents.”

In order to escape the control of the strict Catholic school in Rheinbach near Bonn, he used an external mailbox. He smuggled this letter past the censors and used the uncancelled stamps from his stamp collection. His parents soon him in to pick him up immediately. He didn’t want to be alone at the boarding school when the war started.

He would have just been a little boy scared of war who said to his parents: “Take me away from here and protect me!” They would have gotten into the car immediately, driven to Rheinbach and calmed him down.

Niedecken commemorates the many terrible wars that have taken place around the world since then. For example in former Yugoslavia and Iraq. But unlike the current Russian attack on Ukraine, this would not have had the dimensions of a Europe-wide war, according to Niedecken. He was shocked by the unscrupulousness of Kremlin boss Putin. His lies send chills down your spine.

He would not be in a position to offer much advice from the sidelines. The situation is difficult enough. On the one hand, he advocates determination and the toughest sanctions. On the other hand, further escalation must be avoided in any case. “Now just don’t listen to the agitators,” warned Niedecken. “That would be the worst thing of all.” Niedecken hopes at least that the common line of the EU countries will continue to stand when tens of thousands of refugees from the Ukraine will soon come to us.