Josef Bryks

Who is Josef Bryks?

Flight Lieutenant Josef Bryks was a Czechoslovak soldier and fighter pilot, who went abroad in the beginning of the Second World War to fight against Nazi Germany. He served with the Royal Air Force, but his aircraft was shot down and he was captured. He tried to escape several times, succeeding three times, but each time was recaptured afterwards. After the war he was a victim of political repression in communist Czechoslovakia, imprisoned and forced to work in uranium mines. He died of a heart attack in the prison hospital. He was rehabilitated after the fall of communism in 1989 and posthumously promoted to the rank of Brigadier General.