On 11 September 1951, the 9.55am train from Prague to Aš, in Communist Czechoslovakia was hijacked and driven to freedom in West Germany.

One hundred and eleven people were on board and 34 of them never returned, starting new lives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.

The remaining 77 returned to Czechoslovakia to face state security, the Státní bezpečnost, and many were jailed.

Rachel Naylor uses an archive interview with Karel Ruml, one of the hijackers, who went on to move to the United States.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

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(Photo: A steam train in Czechoslovakia in 1960. Credit: Alamy)

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