Milan Paumer | |
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| Born | April 7, 1931 |
| Died | July 22, 2010 (aged 79) |
Milan Paumer (April 7, 1931 – July 22, 2010) was a member of a militant Czechoslovak anticommunist resistance group 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 Eastern Bloc. His five-man group, the Mašín Gang, carried out raids against state institutions in Czechoslovakia before being forced to flee to the West in October 1953.[1] The group crossed the Czech border to East Germany, making their way to West Berlin while an estimated 25,000 East German policemen, 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 Mašín Gang successfully made it to the West and ultimately to the United States.
After returning to the Czech Republic following the fall of Communism, Paumer retired to his old home town. He remained a controversial figure who was reviled by some as a murderer but hailed by others as a heroic resistance figure. He was honoured by the Czech government in 2008 and the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Nečas, declared that Paumer had made a heroic decision to fight Communist oppression.