Anti-Communist fight veteran Paumer dies

[Pisis]

Prague - Milan Paumer, a member of the controversial Masin brothers group that led active fight against Czechoslovak Communist regime in the early 1950s, died after a serious illness aged 79 today.



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In March 2008, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek (the Civic Democratic Party, ODS) decorated Paumer with his plaque.

Paumer, together with the brothers Josef and Ctirad Masin, who led an anti-communist resistance group, managed to fight their way out from communist Czechoslovakia to West Germany in 1953.

The Masins and Milan Paumer killed two policemen and a cashier in their homeland and later three East German policemen during their flight from Czechoslovakia.

Both historians and the general public are divided on the activities of the Masins group.

For some, they were heroes of anti-Communist resistance, while others are not sure whether the armed actions harmed the Communist regime or played into the hands of its propaganda.

Some historians also question the correct character of armed resistance as there was no war. They concur that the fighters had acted with a good intention and their odyssey through Germany to the Americans in West Berlin should be admired.

The Masins' group also included Vaclav Sveda and Zbynek Janata who tried to escape to West Berlin, but were caught and executed, as well as the Masins' uncle Ctibor Novak, who was also executed.

When faced with the accusation of having killed the two meaningless police officers and the cashier, Paumer said he had no choice but to "do away with the former."

He said they had attacked the cashier without any arms and he produced a pistol with which they eventually killed him.



"It was the gun of a militia man," Paumer said, stressing that the cashier had been the commander of the Communist para-military People's Militia in the factory in which he worked.

Communists would never entrust the gun to anyone else, he added.

Anti-Communist fight veteran Paumer dies - ?eskéNoviny.cz

[Pisis]

There is a very well detailed article on wikipedia about the Masin Brothers group, as well as the father of the brothers, Czechoslovak pre-WW2 general Josef Masin, who was a anti-Nazi hero.

Ma?ín - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Pisis]

There is also a book about that: Jan Novak's biographical novel of the Masin brothers named 'book of the year' - Radio Prague

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