Mašín (pronunciation similar to English machine, but stresse on first syllable) is a Czech family name, most often associated with Josef Mašín and his sons, Ctirad Mašín and Josef Mašín. The former was a hero of Czech anti-Nazi resistance, the latter - often called the Mašín-Brothers - started armed anti-Communist resistance after the war. What made them really famous was their incredible escape through the Iron Curtain, in the words of the Czech-American writer Jan Novak the Greatest story of the Cold War: fleeing on foot through all the GDR to West Berlin, thousands of East German policeman and Soviet troops were not able to catch them. Outside of the Czech and Slovak communities at home and abroad, this story is almost forgotten.