Szilveszter Matuska (29 January 1892 – disappeared c. 1945) was a Hungarian mass murderer and mechanical engineer who made two successful and at least two unsuccessful attempts to derail passenger trains in Hungary, Germany and Austria in 1930 and 1931.

[1] Matuska's first successful crime was the derailment of the Berlin-Basel express train south of Berlin on 8 August 1931.

Because of the discovery of a defaced Nazi newspaper at the scene of the crime, among other things, the attack was believed to have been politically motivated.

[1] Matuska carried out this crime by placing numerous sticks of dynamite[2] in a brown fibre suitcase, which detonated at a viaduct due to the weight of the train, causing the engine and nine of the eleven coaches to plunge into a ravine 30 metres deep.

According to some reports, he served as an explosives expert during the latter stages of World War II; he was "borrowed" from the prison for 17 days, then returned.

He posed as a surgeon, worked for a time with the Russian war hospital, and then moved on with the troops in January 1945.

[4] A Hungarian film titled "Merenylet" was made in 1959 starring Lajos Basti and Antal Pager.