Josef Mašín

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Josef Mašín

Josef Mašín senior (Born August 26, 1896 in Lošany ; † June 30, 1942 in Prague ) was a personality of the Czechoslovak resistance against National Socialism . Mašín was a soldier, legionnaire and officer in Czechoslovakia . After 1939 he formed together with Josef Balabán and Vaclav Moravek the lead resistance group Tři králové (Magi) extending as a part of is also made of military personnel group Obrana národa on subversion and sabotage not only in the field of Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia specialized .

Josef Mašín was arrested and executed in 1942. After the war he was promoted to major general in memoriam . His sons Ctirad and Josef Mašín fought with attacks against the communist regime and in 1953 fled spectacularly from Czechoslovakia.

Life

Josef Mašín, who came from a farming family, graduated from a secondary school in Kutná Hora and from 1912 to 1915 the secondary commercial school in Roudnice nad Labem , where he graduated from high school in April 1915 . At the end of April 1915 he was drafted into the army and came to the Eastern Front , where he deserted in September 1915, was briefly taken prisoner by the Russians and enlisted in the Czechoslovak legions in January 1916 . Until the end of the war he served in various rifle units, attended an officer's school and attended courses. Among other things, he took part in the Battle of Zborów and the Battle of Bachmatsch and in battles near Krasnoyarsk , where he was seriously wounded. With the rank of captain, he traveled via Vladivostok to Prague, where he arrived in February 1920. He left the army first, but returned a few months later, attended special courses and served in the artillery in Budweis , among other things as commander of a battery , from September 1927 as head of an officers' school. From September 1928 Mašín was transferred to the 1st Artillery Regiment in Prague; around this time he met Josef Balabán. In this unit he stayed with interruptions in various positions until the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, partly as commander. He was promoted several times, including major in July 1929 and colonel in July 1933. In 1938 his regiment was assigned to the new 2nd Army Group in Jihlava , Mašín took over command of the regiment and the artillery of this 2nd group.

On March 14, 1939, on the eve of the so-called smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic, Mašín was suspended from duty and charged with mutiny because he refused to accept the surrender and non-violent surrender of the (under pressure) agreed between President Emil Hácha and Adolf Hitler Landes to follow the Wehrmacht . He attacked his superiors, who prevented him from blowing up a weapons and ammunition depot in the barracks so as not to let it fall into the hands of the Wehrmacht.

On June 15, 1929 Josef Mašín married his wife Zdena Mašínová, née Nováková, with whom he had three children: Ctirad (1930–2011), Josef (* 1932) and Zdena (* 1933).

resistance

Memorial plaque on the municipal office in Lošany

Shortly before the German troops marched in, Josef Mašín began to contact people close to him and make preparations with them for the necessary resistance. He was able to deposit a considerable amount of weapons and ammunition in the premises of Josef Líkař's plumbing company on Karlovarská Street ( Bílá Hora district ). From then on, Líkař's workshop served as an armory, explosives workshop, ammunition and weapons depot and quickly developed into the most important and largest hiding place of the resistance groups Obrana národa and Tři králové. Líkař's entire family was involved in the conspiratorial activity, including the Řehák family (from which his wife came) and an acquaintance. In addition, the illegal magazine V boj! made with Mašín's collaboration. Little by little, more hiding places were set up throughout the Protectorate, in which the explosives made by Líkař's company, as well as captured weapons and explosives, were deposited.

At the same time, Mašín kept close contacts with officers Josef Churavý , Josef Jirka , Bedřich Homola and others, with whom he formed the Obrana národa resistance group. His task was to build a new regiment in the Prague districts of Dejvice , Bubeneč and Břevnov . The cooperation with Balabán and Morávek, from which the affiliated group Tři králové was formed, was of particular importance. While Balabán and Morávek mainly dealt with intelligence tasks and were responsible for contact with the Czechoslovak government in exile , Mašín concentrated on sabotage and other subversive actions. Various facilities in the protectorate served as targets, including the railroad as well as military and supply trains of the Wehrmacht, on which several explosive attacks were carried out. Acts of sabotage were also carried out in the Reich: Mašín's brother-in-law, Ctibor Novák, carried out an attack on the police headquarters and the Reich Aviation Ministry in Berlin on September 15, 1939, and in February 1941 there was also an attack at Berlin's Anhalter Bahnhof .

In the spring of 1941 the group suffered great losses. After Balabán was arrested in April 1941, the Gestapo succeeded in eliminating Mašín as well. On May 13, 1941, Mašín, Morávek and the radio operator of the group František Peltán met in a conspiratorial apartment in Prague to use their shortwave transmitter to establish contact with the government-in-exile in London . A Gestapo detachment raided the apartment. While Morávek and Peltán managed to escape from the window on the third floor, Mašín was shot injured and arrested. He was subjected to severe interrogation and torture for several months in Pankrác Prison in Prague . The government in exile in London tried to exchange him for a captured captain of a German submarine, but this was rejected by the German authorities. After the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich in May 1942, Mašín was sentenced to death by a court martial on June 30, 1942 and executed that same evening.

After the liberation, Josef Mašín was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General and in 2005 to Major General.

More family members

Mašín's wife Zdena Mašínová née Novák, who was imprisoned in Pankrác prison and in the Small Fortress in Theresienstadt from January to August 1942 , continued her resistance activity after her release and received the Czechoslovak War Cross after the country was liberated . The two sons Ctirad Mašín and Josef Mašín (junior), whom she had with Josef Mašín, formed an anti-communist group with some friends with whom they undertook several acts of terrorism against the totalitarian communist regime in the territory of Czechoslovakia and the GDR between 1951 and 1953 . Zdena Mašínová was arrested as a result of the actions of her sons and sentenced to 25 years in prison; she died in prison on June 12, 1956. Her brother Ctibor Novák was executed in connection with this on May 2, 1955.

Awards

See also

Web links

Commons : Josef Mašín  - collection of pictures

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f MAŠÍN Josef , detailed curriculum vitae in: Vojenské osobnosti československého odboje 1939–1945 , publication of the Historical Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, AVIS, Prague 2005, p. 191, online (archived) at: vojenskaakademiehranice.ic .cz / ...
  2. ↑ a b c Josef Mašín , detailed curriculum vitae on the server of the Prague 6 district on the occasion of the (since 2002) annual award of honorary citizenship to deserving citizens, here to all three members of the Tři králové resistance group in 2012, online at: praha6.cz/. ..
  3. ↑ "Confidently in the hands of the Führer" , in: NS archive, documents on National Socialism, online at: ns-archiv.de / ...
  4. ↑ a b Zásobovali odboj výbušninami, gestapo je popravilo. Teď se dočkali pomníku , report by the Český rozhlas radio station on the occasion of the inauguration of a monument in Prague, May 13, 2013, online at: irozhlas.cz/
  5. ↑ Josef Líkař, Václav Řehák a bělohorská 'cukrárna' , news portal of the Tiscali.cz server, online at: tiscali.cz / ...
  6. ↑ MORÁVEK Václav , detailed curriculum vitae in: Vojenské osobnosti československého odboje 1939–1945 , publication of the Historical Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic, AVIS, Prague 2005, page 199, online (archived) at: vojenskaakademiehranice.ic.cz / ...
  7. ↑ František Moravec : spy, jemuž nevěřili , translation (from English) Hana Moravcová-Disherová. Sixty-Eight Publishers, Vol. 32, Toronto 1977, ISBN 0-88781-032-2 (3rd edition: Academia, Prague 2002, ISBN 80-200-1006-8 ); English original edition: František Moravec: Master of spies. The memoirs of General Frantisek Moravec. Bodley Head, London et al. 1975, ISBN 0-370-10353-X (also: Time-Life Books, Alexandria VA 1991, ISBN 0-8094-8570-2 )
personal data
SURNAME Mašín, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czechoslovak general and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Lošany
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1942
Place of death Prague