Evening star. [volume], September 08, 1946, Page 15, Image 92

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
"Give everyone a share,"
the lieutenant ordered
The Town That Got Rieh Quick
BY THEODORE IRWIN
Czech villagers hit the
jackpot when the Nazis
left 16,000,000 behind.
Here’s what happened
What would happen to your
town if one wonderful day a
quixotic visitor were to hand out six
million dollars to everybody in it —
at the rate of a thousand dollars for
each year of your life?
A flight of fancy? Well, little over
a year ago just such a cash windfall
did drop into the lap of the village
of Sastin in the northeast comer of
Czechoslovakia.
It was during the last days of
April. 1945. German forces were
occupying Sastin, a placid little com
munity of several thousand fanners
and industnal workers close to the
Austrian border. When word time
that the Russians were ap
proaching, pandemonium hit
the Naxis. They prepared to retreat
further northward to Austria.
In the mayor’s office at the Sastin
town hall, used by the Germans as
their headquarters, the Nazi com
mandant stared at a few battered
trunks. They were packed to the
bnm with korunas, the Czechoslo
vak currency. Originally, the Nazis
had looted the money from the
vaults of the Czechoslovak National
Bank of Bratislava.
m. 0«Uway
Now, with the Red Army on his
heels, the panicky Nazi commander
decided to abandon his millions.
Outside, his staff car — the motor
running — was waiting to speed him
to safety. There was no room for
any of the trunks, so he locked them,
pocketed the keys, and called in
two young Slovak peasants who had
been drafted into the Wehrmacht.
“I leave these trunks in your care.
Hide them well. I’ll hold you both
responsible. If 1 return — and some
day our armies will return — you
will be well rewarded. Do you under
stand?”
The two soldiers nodded dumbly.
A moment later, the Nazi officer
was gone. The terrified Slovaks
promptly discarded their German
uniforms for peasant clothes and
soon were bicycling madly down the
road toward their farms.
Meanwhile, the trunks remained
in the mayor’s office.
The next day. a battalion of Rus
sians took over Sastin. Naturally,
the first thing the lieutenant in charge
inspected was the former Nazi head
quarters. There were the strange
trunks. Breaking one open, he picked
up a few bundles of currency. What
was to be done with all this?
To understand what happened
next, just remember that these
Russian soldiers — part of General
Konev’s army — had started their
triumphant push way back in Stalin
grad. They had fought without stop
ping, week after week, month after
month with only one thought:
"March into Berlin or die.”
"Fam It Oat"
And so the weary lieutenant —
his name does not appear on any
records of the Czech government —
said to his sergeant: “Who knows if
I will be alive tomorrow, if I will
ever see Berlin ? Let’s give this money
to the townspeople.”
Then he added: “You handle this,
Sergeant. See that every man,
woman and child in Sastin gets a
share. Ask each one his age, and for
every year of his life give him a
thousand korunas. There should be
enough to go around."
With that problem solved he
stretched out on a couch and fell
asleep.
On that sunny day in April, the
gentle people of Sastin became rich
beyond their dreams. In all. some
300,000.000 korunas (equal to
$6,000,000) were handed out.
For a few hours, Sastin was
stunned. People were incredulous at
their amazing good fortune: a citizen
with a large family had as much as
150,000 or 200,000 korunas! Every
one rushed into the shops in a wild,
almost hysterical, spending spree.
Sastin at once became the scene
of perhaps the fastest inflationary
spiral in history. A man used to pay
three korunas for a shave; now it
cost him 3,000! The entire economy,
of the town broke down. Every man
was a magnate, a big shot. Farm
hands and laborers refused to work.
The town’s flour mills, the ce
ment factory, the distillery — all
had to shut down. Butchers and
other merchants sold their whole
stocks at fantastic prices.
And when everything in Sastin’s
stores was sold out, the people
traveled to near-by towns with their
wads of money. Prices soon sky
rocketed there, too, and Sastin be
came the center of a monetary
earthquake.
But all the people didn’t spend
their new wealth foolishly. Many of
them, after the first orgy of extrava
gance was over, buried their money
in gardens and cellars.
By mid-May, the directors of the
bank in Bratislava, checking on the
currency missing from their vaults,
had traced it to Sastin.
There was no way, however, to
force the people to return it. So the
democratic government headed by
President Edouard Benes asked them
to give it back voluntarily. An in
tensive propaganda drive, pointing
out that the money was urgently
needed state property, was aimed at
Sastin’s patriotism.
1 hen an mcreoiDie tmng nap
pened: the people of Sastin dug into
their gardens and came forth with
115.000. 000 korunas. The remaining
185.000. 000 korunas were most likely
scattered in other towns and cities.
Perhaps the Sastinites responded so
readily because they are all deeply
religious. 1b any case, most of the
suddenly-acquired fortunes were
voluntarily wiped out.
Sooner or later, the Czech govern
ment plans to ask each citizen just
how he obtained his wealth during
the war. Perhaps eventually most of
the 300,000,000 korunas that once
had flowed so freely in &stin will,
return to their home in Bratislava.
Today, Sastin is still in something
of a daze and the people have a
glazed look in their eyes. Men who
had once refused to work are back
in the fields and factories. But in
the wine shops, a bottle of shyovitz,
which used to cost 25 korunas, now
sells for 600. Sastin will never be
the same.
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