After World War Two until 1955, Vienna, Austria, was divided into five occupation zones between the Soviet Union, USA, UK and France, and with the First District (Inner City) being patrolled by military units of all four allied powers. Graham Greene wrote in his novella The Third Man:
At night it is just as well to stick to the Inner City or the zones of three of the Powers, though even there the kidnappings occur – such senseless kidnappings they sometimes seemed to us – a Ukrainian girl without a passport, an old man beyond the age of usefulness, sometimes, of course, the technicians or the traitor.
The Third Man film based on the novella is shown three times each week in Vienna, at the English-language movie theater Burgkino, which has shown it continuously for over thirty years--https://www.burgkino.at/movie/third-man, [Accessed January 2020]
Below we will look at one political kidnapping in Vienna and its connection to Radio Free Europe.
Štefan Kiripolský Story
Part One
During the night July 6-7, 1952, Štefan Kiripolský (born December 24, 1914 Palárikovo , Austria-Hungary, now Slovakia) and Helena Neumanova left their village in Czechoslovakia, crossed the Danube River in a small boat to Austria and settled in Vienna as refugees.
On December 1, 1952, Kiripolský started working as an “interviewer” at Radio Free Europe’s News and Information Service Field Office in Vienna. More ominously, he also started working with the United States Military Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), helping debrief others, who had escaped from behind the Iron Curtain.
Unknown to Kiripolský, the Czechoslovak Intelligence Service (StB) had agents in place in Vienna, who were reporting on his activities, e.g., one agent code-named Cloves (Hribicek), started working for the StB at RFE’s office at the end of November 1952. The StB started an interest file on Kiripolsky in December 1952.
In January 1953, the chief of the First Department of the Intelligence Regional Administration in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Pafco and his second-in-command Captain Vlastimil Kroupa wrote up a plan to kidnap Štefan Kiripolský. In order to accomplish this task, a three-member team was expected to travel to Vienna, and the operation was to be carried out through cooperation with the Soviet counterintelligence service. Then Deputy Minister of National Security, Prchal did not approve the plan and it was dropped at that time. Nevertheless, surveillance of Kiripolský’s activities continued.
On July 17, 1953, at 5 PM, Guenther Schuettler was kidnapped (apprehended?) in Vienna by two men, who drove him to the Bellaria section of Vienna, where he was held for four days and interrogated by Soviet officers. Of primary concern of the Soviets was Štefan Kiripolský, who worked in the RFE Vienna office and also with the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corp (CIC) in Vienna.
After 4 days, he agreed to work for the Soviet Intelligence Service and arrange that Kiripolský would “fall into Soviet hands” for which Schuettler would receive a bonus of 10,000 Schillings.Schuettler was also a member of the Nationale Liga and the “Freikorps Donauland”, and agreed to inform the Soviets about both organizations.
Instead Schuettler reported to the Austrian State Police what happened to him. He did meet with a Soviet contact and was driven around the Soviet occupied district while giving some information. Another meeting was scheduled at the East Railway station in Vienna but Schuettler did not show up and there was no further contact with the Soviet intelligence service.
The West German intelligence agency Gehlen Organization learned of this and reported to the CIA Chief of Base in Pullach (outside Munich). That office in turn notified the CIA Chief of Station in Vienna, with the request to confirm that Kiripolský worked for RFE and the CIC and that perhaps Kiripolský should be warned that he was a target of a possible kidnapping.
On August 21, 1954, Kiripolský wanted to go on vacation with Neumanova in the southern part of Austria, which meant he would have to travel through the Soviet occupied zone of Austria via Wiener Neustadt. He mentioned it to his supervisor, who advised him not to go. In spite of the advice, they left for vacation. In Wiener Neustadt, A Russian military officer stopped Kiripolský and Neumanova at a railway checkpoint and took them from the train. The Russian officer was apparently expecting him to come through that point at about that particular tine. Several other Russian soldiers were present. They put Kiripolský into a Russian-made car and took him to Baden, Austria -- still within the Soviet Zone. Neumanova was transported in a different vehicle.
There was widespread newspaper coverage in the United States that included statements from the RFE manager in Vienna, Russel Hill, who was quoted as saying "There was little doubt that one of RFE's top Czechoslovak employees had been kidnapped by the Russians." Another article reported, "The kidnapping was the first case of direct action against the anti-Communist broadcasting organisation." Radio Free Europe terminated Kiripolsky’s employment on August 31, 1954, because: “He did not return to work after vacation, actually defected or kidnapped to CSSR.”
No comments:
Post a Comment