The US-Ameri­can Victor Gross­man (1928–2025) was called up to the US Army in 1952 during the Korean War. Statio­ned in West Germany, Gross­man fled the McCar­thy-era perse­cu­tion of leftists by swim­ming across the Danube into the Soviet zone of Austria. He then lived in the DDR for 37 years, where he worked, married, became a father, and studied — he is the worl­d’s only holder of degrees from Harvard Univer­sity and Karl Marx Univer­sity in Leip­zig. From 1965 to 1968, he also direc­ted the Paul Robe­son Archive at the Academy of Arts on the world-famous Afri­can-Ameri­can actor, singer and active free­dom fighter.

After 1990, Gross­man worked as a free­lance jour­na­list and author in Berlin. He wrote seve­ral books, inclu­ding an English-language auto­bio­gra­phy: “Crossing the River: A Memoir of the Ameri­can Left, the Cold War, and Life in East Germany”. He also coll­ec­ted his thoughts on the DDR and the poli­tics of today in: “A Socia­list Defec­tor: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee”.