"West German terrorist Norbert Kröcher was arrested on March 31, 1977." "He was leading a group planning to kidnap politician Anna-Greta Leijon." "A number of suspects were arrested in the days following." "One of the people arrested was Kröcher's ex-girlfriend, "A"." "This is her story..." "I never ever thought that this would end as badly as it did." "Never." "On New Year's Eve 1972/1973" "I was invited to a party." "At midnight Norbert Kröcher was there, next to me." "We wished each other a happy new year." "That was all." "After that, we ran into each other again on the street." "He was exiting from a jeans shop." "I thought: "Oh, that's him." We went to a café and had a coffee and I invited him over for dinner." "I suppose we had a good time because we met again and he moved in with me for a couple of weeks." "I think it didn't take him long to tell me about his situation." "That he was wanted by the police and a terrorist." "It was stupid of me not to think:" ""Maybe this is a bad idea."" ""The guy's a terrorist and wanted." But I was young, all was nice and many were left-wing radicals then." "It was exciting in the beginning." "We were going to save the world together." ""It's you, me and the world."" "And that song that was in "Easy Rider"..." "He called it our national anthem - and I thought that was kinda sweet." "He returned to Germany in the winter of 1973." "I went to visit him, and they had something called the Rote Ruhrarmee." "It was just him and his wife, and they gave me an assignment." "I had to pretend I was German with some strange ID card." "They said: "She looks like you." "Fetch a bag with weapons at the station."" ""Okay." But luckily there was no parcel there to pick up." "I though: "Shit, what a relief."" "I went home, but we were exchanging love-letters." "I moved house, and later he came to live with me." "I moonlighted half-time for AFP and proof-read half-time for a paper." "We were very short of money and his solution was robbing a bank." "If you're a terrorist, you rob banks to get money for the "movement" - that is: himself." "That must have been when I decided that: "Okay, I can do that once."" "To be trusted among them you had to do something to prove yourself." "So we went to a grove not far away from the bank donned nylon stockings and a red hat on top." "The red hats were to make people notice them and not pay attention to other details." "He said we were like Bonnie and Clyde." "I said: "Oh yeah?" "Remember how they ended up."" "But it was a bit late to back out when you're outside the bank." "So we decided quickly: "Let's go in." I first, and he followed to cover me." "He shouted: "This is a robbery!" "Get down on the floor!" But no one did." "But they realised it was a robbery." "I had to get over the counter and the woman said to me:" ""But what are you doing, children?"" ""Children"?" "That was funny." "I had a plastic bag, threw the money into it and jumped over the counter." "We had to get out, but this idiot of a guy tried to push the door closed." "But I was right behind Norbert, so we could push him to the side." "We had planned not to drive very far so we took the tube at the next stop." "So we went on a train, and I'm sitting there with a bag of money." "We got off at the central station and bought vodka and some beer." "We sat down to count the money, drinking vodka and beer." "After the robbery we took a charter trip, and we went to Berlin." "But things were no good there." "He had been wanted on TV so his old friends were afraid and wanted nothing to do with him." ""Let's go back to Stockholm." "It's too dangerous here."" "I've thought about it later." "What if I had just got on the train on my own?" "What if I had been tough and clear-headed enough to think: "If he's coming to Stockholm I'll be stuck with him."" "So we came home and just took it easy for a year, as I remember it." "That's when he built that ship out of matchsticks, it was a warship." "He painted it and named it after me, after my given name." "I found it a bit sad to have a warship named after me, but..." "I guess he was growing increasingly restless." "He wasn't doing anything." "I was doing everything." "I worked and I cooked." "I bought him newspapers and books and he wanted beer all the time." "All he did was relax, and after a year he had had enough of all that." "It must have been nerve-racking to build a whole boat of matchsticks." "I don't know, he tried to round up people every now and then and he met some anarchists, and they knew other anarchists..." "And they were watching TV with us the night when that thing happened at the West German embassy." "The incident that was the reason why they wanted to kidnap Leijon." "On April 24th, 1975, the embassy was occupied by RAF supporters." "After the siege, two terrorists and one hostage had lost their lives." "The minister Anna-Greta Leijon was in charge of deporting the terrorists." "Suddenly Kröcher took his pistol and said:" ""I'll hijack an aeroplane to get them free before they leave the country."" "So I said: "Eh...wouldn't it be better if you kidnapped Leijon instead?"" ""She's responsible for it." I tried to play for time and in the back of my mind I thought:" ""No chance in hell you'll succeed."" "He calmed down." ""Of course." "That's a great idea."" "After accepting that he started preparing for it and involved some more people." "They knew that she always travelled in an armoured car with guards." "They had a Mexican who had come here from Cuba." "He and Kröcher intended to shoot the security guards put her in that box, drive her to a jetty by the water and bring her to the city by sea." "It sounded crazy - their talk about shooting guards and using violence." "I thought: "Ugh, that's horrible." "They are just too much."" "It was like the Wild West." "He was crazy about the Wild West." "He thought it great that you could wear guns in the US and took me to see lots of Spaghetti Western films." "He loved them." "He was mad about Charles Bronson too." "He said he'd love to be an actor and I think that he was actually playing a part." "But what part?" "Was he playing the role of a terrorist?" "Maybe a terrorist on the run?" "I felt uncomfortable." "I didn't want to sneak around to find out where she lived, and then kidnap her." "But he made me find her address, which I did, oh so obligingly." "Norbert and I went there, but couldn't find the street she was living on." "I found it embarrassing to walk around searching so I took a stroll and picked coltsfoots and blue anemones." "We never found her house, but came home with coltsfoots and anemones." "That's how dangerous I was." "But I found it uncomfortable and thought: "I'm just a normal girl."" ""I've nothing to do with any of this, really."" "But I couldn't control the situation." "It was my life, but he didn't care." "It was all about him, all the time." "We're talking emotional blackmail." "He had nowhere to go, he wanted pity." "He depended on me." "He cried, wanted me to hold him and put me in a hopeless situation." "That's why I didn't go home at nights." "I'd drink with journalists and friends instead." "I didn't want to go home at all." "He was there." "So I withdrew more and more, and even made sure he met another girl." "He dragged me to some stupid meeting because I was going to be expelled." "We came in, sat down on a chair and they cast their votes to expel me." "I couldn't even be bothered to look and see who voted against me." "I just left. "Good riddance, good bye." I thought that was the end." "But he kept the key to my place and wanted to hold meetings there so I had to leave." "At one time, I came home with a guy I was dating and he's lying in my bed" " Kröcher." "My date was scared shitless." "He came to see me on Christmas Eve and told me very proudly that they'd just robbed a bank, and gave me 3000 that he owed me." "And after that he wanted to have sex!" "He was completely unhinged." "I was constantly wondering what to do. "Should I tell anyone about this?"" ""Should I tell them now, or after it's done?" "How do you do it?"" "On March 31st, 1977, Norbert Kröcher is arrested." "April 1st was a Friday, and I saw the headlines about what had happened and thought, stupidly enough:" ""I'll go to work as usual."" "But I had seen that they'd been in my home." "I hadn't slept at home." "Even then, I didn't think of a lawyer." "I should have done, much earlier." "They brought me in for questioning." "They took fingerprints and a photo." "I remember looking really happy, thinking:" ""This is nothing." "I'm happy because I'm innocent."" "A couple of weeks later they took my picture again and I remember trying to look happy but I don't think I did." "But I still thought:" ""I haven't done anything."" "After six weeks, I had become paranoid and was thinking :" ""They know everything." "I have to tell them."" "I couldn't believe why they didn't let me go." "They had once." "I broke down completely." "It was like my brain exploded." "I cried and ended up in their hospital ward." "The trial and all the media was completely horrible." "I spent six months in jail, and four of them in the hospital ward." "After that, I spent two months at a halfway house." "After that, I was ill, got no help and everything went to pieces." ""A" tried to work, but finally had to take early retirement." "The psychosis she got in jail wasn't fully treated until 2003." "I've lost my life." "They didn't give me any medication between 1977 and...2003." "I got no help, no medication." "I almost feel like I was kidnapped instead." "I'm the one who's been kidnapped for 30 years."