Operation STONE (Akce Kámen): The Tragic Theater of Communism ©

On August 31, 1951, Radio Free Europe's Czechoslovak broadcast service, the "Voice of Free Czechoslovakia," aired a radio drama in the hard-hitting series entitled "All This We Know." This program series identified secret police officers, agents, agent-provocateurs, blackmailers, informers, and “quislings" in countries behind the Iron Curtain. This particular program identified a "Dr. Evzen" and went into details of a Czechoslovak intelligence service (StB -- Státní bezpečnost) scheme known as Operation STONE (Akce Kámen). It used agent provocateurs to arrest, try, imprison, or execute potential escapees from Czechoslovakia and steal anything of "wealth" from the victims. STONE referred to the border markers used to identify the German-Czech border.

The criminal scheme involved a false German-Czechoslovak border, according to an official U.S. State Department protest note on June 15, 1948, to Czechoslovakia:  

 

For approximately four weeks, representatives of the Czechoslovak State Security Police (S.N.B.), dressed in full uniform with insignia of officers of the United States Army, have been conducting an office in a house on Czechoslovak territory in the western outskirts of the village of Vseruby. In the conduct of their business, these representatives are seated behind a desk on which there is conspicuously displayed a bottle of American whiskey, packages of American cigarettes, and a small American flag. On the wall behind their desk is a large American flag and pictures of Presidents Truman and Roosevelt. 

 

These S.N.B. representatives, dressed in uniforms of the United States Army, are assisted by other S.N.B. representatives who are dressed in uniforms of the German border police. According to factual evidence in possession of the Government of the United States, the purpose of this office, as well as of the fraudulent misuse of the uniform of the Army of the United States and of the German border police, as well as the display of the American flag and pictures of the former and present presidents of the United States, is to supplement other measures taken by the Czechoslovak Government to prevent illegal departures from Czechoslovakia.  

            

The Czechoslovak government not only denied the allegations but also "hinted that the Americans were somewhat paranoid." Moreover, “Most minute investigation in Vseruby has failed to find the smallest trace or suspicion of misuse of American insignia or portraits of US statesmen. We maintain that the protest is based on a report of an unreliable informer.“  

 

Researchers into Communist Czechoslovakia crimes have proved that the Americans were not paranoid, and scores of Czechoslovak citizens were victimized.  

 

One variation of how the scheme worked in general: previously identified wealthy persons were approached by agent provocateurs and told they were about to be arrested by the secret police. To avoid this, they should leave Czechoslovakia immediately and take only cash and jewelry. They were driven at night to a "border" with border markings. Believing they were at the German border, the victims would then cross on foot, when they would be met by StB agents acting as smugglers or bribed German border police. From there, the victims would be brought to the house described in the 1948 U.S. protest note. They believed they were then in the care of the American military. 

 

For more information, see Chapter 2 in:

 

 

In English, Dr. Igor Lukes, "KAMEN: A Cold War Dangle Operation with an American Dimension, 1948-1952," Studies in Intelligence Vol. 55, No. 1. 

 

In the Czech language, military historian Dr. Prokop Tomek wrote a detailed article about KAMEN– Adventurer in the Service of Communists (Amon Tomašoff – dobrodruh ve službách komunistů) in SECURITAS IMPERII 12, Sbornik k promlematice, pp. 5 -28,  

 

The most detailed study of the subject can be found in  two books in Czech by Václava Jandečková Václava Jandečková: Kámen: Svědectví hlavního aktéra akce "Falešné hranice" u Všerub na Domažlicku,  Nakladatelství Českého lesa 2014 and Falešné hranice: Akce „Kámen“. Oběti a strůjci nejutajovanějších zločinů StB 1948–1951, 2018. In additions she wrote a detailed article in E English:: “OPERATION “Kámen” – VŠERUBY 1948. New revelations in the case of the fake Czech border to Germany”, Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPPS) VOL.7, NR.1/2013, 49-68. The photograph above taken from her book Kámen.