Evening star., 1949-05-13
Reds Using Germans
To Pull Their Wires
In CzechosIovakia
By George Weller
Fersisn Correspondent Of rhs siof and
she ch;ecoo Dcily News

~ ~StSS N~"~s
Foreign cersspendsn. Of rhs stor and
the chieoso Deily News
GENEVA, Switzerland. May Is.
The intermediate wirepullers in
Czechoslovakia today are not
Czechs, but Germans. They are
the connecting rod between the
Kremlin and the Czech Commu-
mist Party.
Two Germans, in particular. are
behind the new Moscow tactic Of
bringing back into Czechoslovakia
by degrees-Sudeten Germans.
The two Germans running the
~spparatchik" for zap
paratus"-in Prague are Fritz
Reizinger, chief of the OBJ or
Communist state security police
and Fritz Geminder, veteran party
member who works close behind
President Gottwald and the
cabinet.
Such 10 the strange design for
the operation of the Communist
machine In Prague revealed here
by the conservative Daily Tribune. :.
Skipped Military Service.
Reizinger Is q Pilsen German.
who went to q German school but
fell into difficulty for skipping his
military service. He worked as a
newspaperman in Prague, disap-
peared when Hitler marched In.
and came to the surface In 1943
in Buzuluku In the Soviet Union.
training Czech troops.
Changing his name to Bedrich
Rejcin. he was lifted into the
Russian intelligence bureau and
sent 10 the Carpathian front. He
fought well and rose to lieutenant
colonel.
When the Russians entered
Prague while Gen. Patton's Army
was held outside, Rejcin was
moved over to the new security
police. organized on Russian lines.
President Benes gradually be-
came aware that the state was
being taken over from within by
the expedient of turning the po-
lice into Communist tools. But
when he demanded Rejcin's re-
rnoval, Moscow stepped In and
defended him. When Mr.. Benes
yielded, Czechoslovakia took the
first step toward the police state
1t Is today.
Reizinger, fresh back from one
Of his several trips to Moscow. was
the artisan of the February. 194s.
coup by the so-called action COM
mittees." The role of his police
was simply to see that any one
who resisted an action commit
tee" was arrested. His police pro-
vided the link Of power between
the Red Army on the borders of
Czechoslovakia and the muscular
civilian teams who were designed
to seize the government "spon-
taneously." that is. with minimum
violence and maximum certainty.
Underling In Actual Boss.
Geminder is q Sudeten German
whose post inside the Prague gov
ernment is unirnportant. He is an
example Of the Soviet control
technique, in which the underling
d actually the boss. intended to
confuse exterior Observers Of the
apparatus who are guided by titles.
! Under his early party name
@Kramer," when he spoke only
German, Geminder went to Mos
cow and studied there from 1884
20 1897. He came back to Czecho-
slovakia and then. after Hitler
occupied the country. returned to
the Soviet Union for the phase Of
turning the capitalist war into
class war" which began with the
partisan movement. He learned
to speak Czech.
The Red Army brought Gemin-
der to Prague with them in May.
1945, and he has been conveyor
belt ever since, under his new
name of Bedrich Vltavsky.
Others Work Behind Scenes.
Geminder's last regular party
task, before the Communist coup
put him on higher levels. was to
visit editors of nom Communist
newspapers and demand that they
stop using news slanted toward
the Western democracies, sticking
to the line Of Rude Pravo, Prague's
big Red daily.
Among the new German elite
behind the scenes In the Prague
government are these party MEM
bers: Karl Kreibich, one-time
6udeten Senator In democratic
days; Robert Freund. adviser In
economic matters who has
changed his name to Frejka, and
Bruno Kohler, who Is said to work
closely with the supreme state So
Wet In Moscow.
Kreibich's daughter orders the
political activities of high echelon
members Of the Czech Communist
Party, laying out their assign
ments. IL IL said here.
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