Defense Minister to honor in memoriam pilot Bryks

National news reporters
14. 7. 2008 8:30
Resistance fighter Josef Bryks died in an uranium mine.

Prague - Defense Minister Vlasta Parkanová is to honor a Czechoslovak pilot Josef Bryks during her visit to the United States. Bryks died in 1957 in a uranium mine where he, a political prisoner, was a laborer.

Parkanová is scheduled to visit the U.S. this week. She is to negogiate with American authorities about the planned missile defense system. It is possible that she will sign the second part of the US defense system deal - NATO SOFA, which deals with the American soldiers´ status on Czech soil.

Colonel Josef Bryks was one of the greatest personalities who fought against both of the totalitarian regimes in Czechslovakia in the 20th century - the Nazis and the Communists. During WWII, he fought the Axis powers in France and Great Britain. In 1941 his plane was shot down and after shortly going into hiding he was captured by the Germans.

The Allies liberated colonel Bryks, but  he ended up in prison again after returning to the "liberated" communists Czechoslovakia.

Bryks was arrested and jailed in 1948. But that did not stop him in his fight against the totalitarian regime.

In 1957 he died in a hospital in a uranium mine Rovnost (Equality) in Ostrově nad Ohří. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 he was rehabilitated and promoted to colonel in memoriam in 1991.  

Colonel Bryks was granted a number of awards. Order of the British Empire, War Medal and the Czechoslovak War Cross three times. 

 

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