238:"Finally we got to the beginning of Berlin. There was a street which what they did was cut it off, laid some wooden logs and barbed wire, and they dug a big ditch, which was about two metres deep. When we were in the ditch we were looking up to anxiously to get out. So I helped and he helped pull me out. Then when we were finally on the street we saw a policeman. He took us to the station and then we were safe."
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of 1989, which ended
Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the outstanding warrants against Paumer and the MašĂns were quashed by the new government. Paumer returned to his native country and settled again at PodÄ›brady, where he retired in 2001. He remained active in politics and was a frequent attendant
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secret agents. Paumer and his friends made their way across East
Germany to West Berlin, living off the land, sleeping in the open in branch-covered holes and from time to time fighting off the police. During this time, three more East German policemen were killed in gun battles with the gang. Paumer
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In
October 1953 the five members of the MašĂn Gang embarked on an escape to the West to avoid imminent arrest by the Communist authorities. Paumer had been drafted into the Czechoslovak military but was alerted by a coded message from the MašĂns telling him that "The wedding is next Saturday". They
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Paumer's role in the killings of communist policemen and officials was and remains a controversial topic. He was praised as an anticommunist hero by some, but was regarded by others as a murderer who had killed without cause. He defended the killing of the policemen, saying that they had left him
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suggested that Paumer and his colleagues were "not good role models" for a time when the country was fighting terrorism. Historians and commentators noted that many Czech people are still ambiguous about the
Communist past, particularly as Paumer and the MašĂns were virtually alone in forcibly
116:, soldiers and secret agents were searching for them. Two of their members were wounded in shootouts in which a total of four East German policemen were killed, but Paumer and the remaining two members of the MašĂn Gang successfully made it to the West and ultimately to the United States.
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was established. Paumer and the MašĂn brothers decided to begin a campaign of armed resistance. They formed a group that became known as the "MašĂn Gang" and began by carrying out minor acts of sabotage in the area around their home town, such as burning fields and defacing posters of
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was still relatively easy to cross around West Berlin. Paumer and the MašĂn brothers made it to the outskirts of Berlin by hiding in the undercarriage of a train. On 2 November 1953, they reached the West by crawling along a ditch. Paumer later recalled:
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told mourners at Paumer's funeral in August 2010 that Paumer had made a heroic decision to fight communism and should not be judged from today's perspective; "as free people we have the right to fight against enslavement with any, truly any means."
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The controversy over Paumer's activities resulted in him being cold-shouldered for many years by members of the post-Communist Czech government. It was not until 2008 that he was officially recognized by the government, when the then Prime
Minister
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but fell afoul of a railway ticket inspector, who reported his suspicions of the group to the police. An attempted ambush by the East German police ended in a shootout that left one policeman dead and resulted in one of the Czechs,
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His colleagues Janata and Švéda, who had been captured earlier, were taken back to
Czechoslovakia where they were executed in 1955. Ctibor Novak, the MašĂns' uncle, was also executed.
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that attracted worldwide fame – and notoriety – for killing seven men in the early 1952s in robberies of money and arms and for evading the biggest manhunt in the history of the
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with no choice but to "do away" with them. He said that the payroll official had been killed after pulling a gun on the gang members and had been a member of the paramilitary
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himself was shot in the hip; although he suffered a painful injury, the wound did not immobilise him and he was able to continue with the escape. One of the other escapees,
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The East German authorities responded with a massive manhunt that was said to have involved up to 25,000 policemen, soldiers and
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Paumer and the MašĂns claimed political asylum in the West after their escape and eventually managed to reach the
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Gauntlet: five friends, 20,000 enemy troops, and the secret that could have changed the course of the Cold War
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demanded that Paumer be stripped of his award and put on trial, while members of the left-wing
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presented him with an award. The decision led to a major controversy; a poll commissioned by
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385:"Member of group who shot their way across Iron Curtain in 1950s Milan Paumer dies at 79"
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on 7 April 1931. During his childhood he lived in the nearby town of
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after leaving the Army and later ran a café. Following the
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Their escape has been described by Czech-American author
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456:. Czech News Agency. 28 July 2010. Archived from
436:"Look back at a Cold War escape divides Czechs"
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454:"Anti-communist fighter Milan Paumer dies"
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135:Early life and anticommunist beginnings
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473:"Czechs bury anti-communist fighter"
187:made their way across the border to
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164:Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
151:. It was there that he first met
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229:had not yet been built and the
171:Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
471:Lopatka, Jan (4 August 2010).
343:. Nonetheless, Prime Minister
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434:Bilefsky, Dan (1 June 2008).
336:Czech Social Democratic Party
290:at anticommunist gatherings.
246:as the greatest story of the
167:seized power in a coup d'Ă©tat
509:„Ten tĹ™etĂ“ od bratrĹŻ MašĂnĹŻ
339:resisting the regime of the
602:United States Army soldiers
533:Interview with Milan Paumer
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112:while an estimated 25,000
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553:Milan Paumer's memories
119:After returning to the
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153:Ctirad and Josef MašĂn
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519:Milan Paumer's speech
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418:The Daily Telegraph
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538:2010-11-28 at the
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440:The New York Times
297:by Barbara MašĂn (
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582:2010 deaths
577:1931 births
389:Radio Praha
309:Controversy
279:South Korea
227:Berlin Wall
216: [
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143:in eastern
110:West Berlin
571:Categories
562:(in Czech)
547:(in Czech)
528:(in Czech)
513:(in Czech)
504:(in Czech)
364:References
345:Petr NeÄŤas
129:Petr NeÄŤas
102:MašĂn Gang
41:1931-04-07
526:(video)
244:Jan Novak
149:Poděbrady
536:Archived
352:See also
248:Cold War
169:and the
558:YouTube
524:YouTube
478:Reuters
283:Florida
145:Bohemia
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71:Prague
358:MašĂn
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60:Died
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
