Mašín

Mašín (pronunciation similar to English machine, but stressed on first syllable) is a Czech family name, most often associated with Josef Mašín and his sons, Ctirad Mašín and Josef Mašín. The former was a hero of Czech anti-Nazi resistance, the latter - often called the Masin-Brothers - started armed anti-Communist resistance after the war. What made them really famous was their incredible escape through the Iron Curtain, in the words of the Czech-american writer Jan Novak the Greatest story of the Cold War: fleeing on foot through all the GDR toWest Berlin, thousands of East German policeman and Soviet troops were not able to catch them. Outside of the Czech and Slovak communities at home and abroad, this story is almost forgotten.

Josef Mašín, the father

Josef Mašín (August 26 1896, Lačany near Kolín – June 30 1942, Prague) was an army officer of Czechoslovakia and member of the underground resistance against the Nazis.

Josef Mašín was a member of the Czechoslovak Legions fighting in Russia (1916–1921) and later an officer in the Czechoslovak Army. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany he, together with Josef Balabán and Václav Morávek, formed a resistance group concentrated on intelligence gathering and sabotages. While more resistance groups existed, this one, aptly named Tři Králové (Three Kings), is the most known among the Czech public. Mašín was captured by the Gestapo on May 13, 1942. After being tortured, he attempted suicide. As part of the German retaliatory measures for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich he was executed. His wife was imprisoned for several months.

After the war, Josef Mašín was medalled and promoted to General. His sons - then 13 and 15 years old - got Medals for "personal braveness during the war".

Josef and Ctirad Mašín, sons

His sons Ctirad Mašín (b. August 11, 1930, Prague) and Josef Mašín (b. March 8, 1932, Prague) are known for their armed resistance against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s.

The resistance group and its actions

Following World War II, Mašín's sons studied at military school. Under the assumption that the next war - between the East and the West - would come soon they formed a military resistance group with a few friends. All of them where members of the middle class and therefore treated as "class enemies". Being thrown out of their houses for Communist cadres to move in instead, their university study applications rejected for political reasons, being fired from any job until only unskilled labor was left - thus were the experiences they shared. The Masin Brothers' uncle Ctibor Novak, a former Secret Service Officer, became an adviser of the group. One source says that Novak had actually put up with the fact of Communist rule and was satisfied if the Communists didn't bother him. He engaged in the group mainly because he hoped he could control his hot-tempered nephews and prevent them from doing the most dangerous actions.

The following actions of the group are documented:

In 1951 the group raided two police stations in order to get weapons and ammunition. Each time a policeman was killed. Other witnesses of the assaults were chloroformed, but left alive.

Shortly after the brothers und their uncle were arrested by the Czechoslovak Secret Service StB and subject to what is today euphemistically called "extended interrogation techniques". Various statements about the particular reason for the arrest can be found in literature. Obviously the StB was given hints about the Masins intensions, that they had firearms and thought about fleeing to the West. But the StB did not realize that they had seized cop killers!

While the others where released after a few months, Ctirad Masin was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. He was sent to work in an uranium mine near Jachymov (Joachimsthal). Masin states that this time in the Czechoslovak kind of Gulag made him even more radical. After his release, he planned to blow up a Soviet uranium train. But all the group managed was to steal 4 chests of altogether 100 kg of explosives from a quarry.

During Ctirad Masin's imprisonment the others robbed a cash transport looting 846,000 Czechoslovak crowns. A cashier was shot.

The last action before their escape was the "Night of Great Fires". In several Moravian villages Vaclav Sveda and Ctirad Masin placed incendiary composition with time fuses into straw stacks. They all lit up in the middle of the night. The action was a protest against the Socialist collectivization of agriculture. At that time, even straw was in short supply, so the Masins intension was not only spreading "shock and awe" but really harming the economy of the agricultural collectives. A firefighter was gunned down. While one source states he died with one bullet in his eye and one in his lungs, most others mention only 3 casualties in Czechoslovakia which means he must have survived.

The escape

In the fall of 1953 the group decided to escape to the West. The Masins usually state they were disappointed of the minimal impact of their activities and wanted to join the US Army in order to fight Communism effectively. That sounds like a legend. It's much more likely that they had to flee head over heels because the Czech police was already breathing down their necks.

In the night from the 3rd to the 4th of october Zbynek Janata, Vaclav Sveda, Milan Paumer and the Masin-Brothers near Deutschkatharinenberg (Hora Sv. Kateriny) sneaked over the border to East Germany in order to get to the western part of Berlin.

West Berlin was kind of a last hole in the Iron Curtain. The Berlin Wall was not erect yet, numerous streets and footpathes, trams and suburban trains connected the parts of the divided city. The border guards could not manage to check the identity of every passenger. So there was a chance for the five to reach their destination without being discovered - esspecially because their names and their activities where not yet known to the East German Police. But it seems like their escape was badly prepared: after three days of walking trough the cold they tried to highjack a car. The attempt failed, but now the police started searching for "five armed foreigners". The fugitives made another mistake taking a train which they thought would bring them closer to Berlin. But while they were sleeping, the train went all the way back to where they had started from.

The next time they took a train ended in a disaster: the women who sold the tickets informed the police about some "suspicious foreigners". At Uckro station the police waited for the train and checked the passengers. The group started shooting, killing one cop and injuring to others. The policeman in charge, hit by 6 bullets, quit his job when the Interior Minister publicly held him responsible for the Masin brothers finally making it to the West.

Shortly after that incident Zbynek Janata, separated from the others, was caught. Only after interrogating him and consulting Czech authorities the police knew who they had to do with. Now the greatest manhunt of the Volkspolizei (literally: People's Police) started. After finding and loosing the tracks of the refugees over and over again, more and more troops where ordered to support the manhunt. East Germany did not have an army by that time - there was only a predecessor of the East German Army, the so called "Kasernierte Volkspolizei" (Baracked People's Police). Therefore Soviet troops where asked for assistence.

Eventually thousands of people hunted four anti-Communists. The Masin family claims there where 20,000 pursuers. Wolfgang Mittmann (1939-2006), a true crime author and former member of the Volkspolizei states that according to the final report there where only 5,000 policemen involved in the manhunt - plus troops of the Secret Service plus troops of the Red Army. Their number does not appear in the police files, but it's very unlikely that they send more troops than the authority that was actually in charge. What is however true is that while thousands of troops hunted the Masins, another thousands of troops where ordered to other parts of the country because the Communist party believed in their own propaganda that the fugitives actually were only a few of numerous CIA agents infiltrating the country to provoke a repetition of the workers' uprising in June. Altogether three pursuers were shot by the group. At least three more died in friendly fire.

In another nightly gun battle at Waldow, Vaclav Sveda was hurt and surrendered. The three others managed an incredible escape through the encirclement into the dark. After thirty-one days they reached their destination: Ctirad Masin under the floor of a suburban train, Paumer and Josef Masin somehow managed to pass the border on foot.

It's not possible to reconstruct any detail of the escape: several times the police was called upon rumours that someone had seen the Czechs. Many of the troops where unexperienced young man who had joined the armed forces only weeks or months before. They did not get any official information from their officers, therefore rumours spread in which the Czechs became Rambos who had killed countless pursuers. Therefore the troops, whenever assuming the fugitives around, shot at "anything that moved" and afterwards wrote into their reports that they had fired at the Czechs but missed them. As a result, one can find gun battles that never took place in the police files. On the other hand, the Masins after arriving in the West consciously changed some details of their story in order to protect people who had helped them. They for instance claimed they had crossed the highway between Berlin and Dresden after the Waldow battle and found refuge at a family in "Schönwalde". Though there were people in Schönwalde who "remembered" the Masins' visit, several researchers found out that they never made it there: the highway was under permanent surveillance, passing it was simply impossible. Gerald Endres director of a German documentary claimed he found the place and the family where they had really stayed after the Waldow battle. Even 50 years later wouldn't talk about that: According to them the lokal authorities were still the same and they still feared their revenge!

After the escape

Back in Czechoslovakia people who had any association with the Mašíns received harsh treatment. Václav Švéda Zbyněk Janata and Ctibor Novak were sentenced to death and executed. Other friends and relatives were sentenced to many years of imprisonment. The Mašíns' mother, Zdena Masinova who was not involved at all in the military resistance of her sons, died in prison on June 12, 1956. Even the Masins little sister - her name also Zdena Masinova was jailed. Today she is an icon for the Czech anti-Communist movement.

In East Germany, whose armed forces had been humiliated, the manhunt was brushed under the carpet. In Czechoslovakia communist propaganda made full use of the the Masin's actions, describing them as looters and brutal murderers of innocent passers-by. Their actions were used to justify tight control over the society and brutal treatment of any opponents.

The fugitives moved to the United States and joined the U. S. Army Special Forces for 5 years. Milan Paumer fought in Korea. In the 60s, Josef Masin jr. settled down in Cologne, West Germany. The Czech Security Service StB several times planned to kidnap or kill him. Later he moved to the USA again. Both the brothers still live there and refuse to enter Czech soil again unless the are fully rehabilitated. In 2001, Milan Paumer sold his home in Florida and moved back to Podebrady.

Current disputes

After the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia (1989), the oppression and crimes of communist party have been revealed and condemned and people sentenced during this era are generally seen as innocent victims. The Mašíns became the most disputed exceptions.

The armed resistance after 1948 was very small (compared to that of neighbouring countries in the Eastern Bloc) and killings were uncommon. Rambousek's book was published in Czechoslovakia in 1990 and realistic descriptions of how the brothers killed a cashier or how they cut the throat of disarmed policeman disabled by chloroform didn't fit well into "velvet" mood of Czechs.

Even 15 years later the case of Mašíns is able to deeply divide Czech public into two groups: one seeing them as heroes, another abhorring such brutal murderers. Politicians in the Czech Republic occasionally face uneasy problem of taking a clear stand on the Mašíns.

In contrast to the inhabitants of the Czech and Slovak Republics, the majority of the expatriates seem to be Masin admirers: in 2005, the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada gave the Thomas-Masaryk-Award to the Masin-Brothers and Milan Paumer.

Versions of the Story

Yet no historian has researched the story of the Masin-Brothers. Various fictional and documentary versions exists. The authors of most of them cannot be considered as neutral. Therefore an overview of the existing literature shall be given. According to Barbara Masin, three propaganda books on the story were published in Czechoslovakia. The last one, "Mrtvi nemluvi" (Dead do not talk) was translated into German and published in the GDR a few months before the end of Socialism. Besides the Masins had to serve as culprits in one episode of the famous detective series "Major Zeman". In contrary to reality, he caught them. The Masins theirselves, after losing the belief that the West would wage war to end Communism in Eastern Europe, were reluctant to talk about their past. Eventually another Czech expatriate made them tell their story again: Ota Rambousek had been a political prisoner in Czechoslavakia. While many people sat in East European jails accused of being American spies, Rambousek was one of the few who were not innocent. He had indeed been an agent of the US Counter Intelligence Corps. His death sentence was commuted to lifetime imprisonment. In jail he heard about the Masins, whose story had become a kind of an Heroic Saga for the prisoners. In 1968 he was released and made it to the West. Only in 1984 Rambousek managed to meet the Brothers in New York and write the novel "Jenom ne strach" (Just no fear). The Czech expatriate publishing house 68 publishers in Toronto refused to publish the book. Masin admirers state that Vaclav Havel, former fellow student of the Masins at Podebrady high school did not want it to be printed. Eventually it was published in Prague after the Velvet Revolution. 1987 Rambousek interviewed Ctirad Masin for Radio Free Europe. As Eastern archives were not open yet, the book is based only on the Masins memories.

In East Germany, Wolfgang Mittmann (1939-2006), policeman and true crime writer, started researching the manhunt in the 80s. In a propaganda book he found a few sentences on four policeman killed near the place where Mittmann himself lived - in 1949! Mittmann found one of the tomb stones, where the correct year 1953 was written. He - maybe after getting some hints from older colleages or hearing local rumours - started asking the people around and found them reluctant to talk about the "Czech's War" or "Uckro War". He also got in touch with the author of "Mrtvi nemluvi". After the reunification of Germany he studied East German Records. He also had translated parts of Rambouseks book and the interviews to compare them with the Czech police records. His conclusion was that Rambousek and the Masins consciously played down the actions Czechoslovakia. For Mittmann the Masins were mere killers. It's understandable that a policeman cannot honor shots on colleagues.

After reading Mittmann's report, two German journalists decided to find and interview the Masins if possible. Their documentary "Der Luckauer Krieg" met with severe criticism because they "presented murderers as heros". This was probably similar to the Czech public reaction to "Jenom ne strach".

In 2004 the Czech-american writer Jan Novak_(Writer) wrote a biographical novel on the fathers' and the sons' stories. Its title "So far so good" (Zatim Dobry). It won the coveted Magnesia Litera "book of the year" award in Czechia. Although Novak wrote in English, only the Czech Edition is available so far. Milos Forman announced he is going to make a movie based on the book.

Last not least, Barbara Masin, Josef Masin's daughter researched several years in Germany, the USA and the Czech Republic to reconstruct the story of her family. The English edition of her book "Gauntlet" has just been published in the USA.

References

Barbara Masin: Gauntlet, Naval Institute Press, 2006, ISBN 1591145155 (Czech title: Odkaz, Prague 2005 ISBN, 8020412484) website
Ota Rambousek: Jenom ne strach, Nezávislé tiskové středisko, 1990, ISBN 8085196026
Jan Novák: Zatím dobrý (So far so good), Petrov, Brno 2004, ISBN 8072271946

(German sources used for the article)

Vrbecký, František "Die Mašíns geben nicht auf" ("Mrtví nemluví"), Berlin 1989, ISBN 3327008183 Translation of a Czechoslovak propaganda book
Mittmann, Wolfgang "Tatzeit. Große Fälle der Deutschen Volkspolizei", Vol. 1+2, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3360008545 True crime stories of the Volkspolizei
Ute Bönnen, Gerald Endres "Der Luckauer Krieg - Flucht nach Westberlin" documentary, containing interviews with the brothers, former cops and German eye-witnesses

External links

(links to English articles by Czech Media)

(texts in Czech language)

Mašín brothers: extracts from Rambousek's book, disputes over the Mašíns' role
http://www.bratri-masinove.cz/ Website documenting activity of the brothers, interviews, references]