page_title: Josef Bryks
section_title: Three trials
hierarchical_section_title: Josef Bryks / In Czechoslovakia from 1945 / Three trials
caption_attribution_description: Česky: Josef Bryks na fotce z vězení na Borech. English: A mugshot of Josef Bryks from Věznice Bory prison.
context_page_description: Josef Bryks, MBE, was a Czechoslovak cavalryman and fighter pilot who escaped the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and became a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He flew a Hawker Hurricane with No. 242 Squadron RAF until he was shot down over German-occupied France in 1941.
  Bryks was a prisoner of war for four years, in which time he escaped and was recaptured three times. After his third escape he served in the Polish Home Army in Warsaw, where he helped to get supplies to Jewish resistance fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
  After his third recapture Bryks was moved to Stalag Luft III where he helped in The Great Escape, and then to Oflag IV-C in Colditz Castle, where he remained until it was liberated by the US Army in 1945. In 1948 the United Kingdom made Bryks an MBE for his escape attempts and for helping others to escape.
  In 1945 Bryks returned to Czechoslovakia and his Czechoslovak Air Force career. He was promoted to Major in 1946 but after the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état the Communists purged Bryks and many other officers who had served in Free Czechoslovak units under French or UK command.
context_section_description: Just after midnight on the night of 2–3 May 1948 the StB secret police arrested Bryks at his home in Olomouc. He was charged with involvement in an alleged attempt by other former RAF airmen, including Air Marshal Karel Janoušek, to escape to the West. Bryks was court-martialled in Prague between 14 and 16 July 1948 and was found not guilty, because Communists did not yet control these courts. But the prosecutor appealed and Bryks remained in prison.
  Bryks was retried on 2 September 1949. By now the Communists controlled the courts. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. He was stripped of his rank and medals and expelled from the air force. His wife obtained an exit visa for herself and their young daughter, stating that it was to pay her parents in England in short visit. In fact she left Czechoslovakia for the duration of the Communist era, and did not return until 2009.
  After his conviction Bryks was held first in Pankrác, in the same prison where the Gestapo had held him in 1944. On 17 August 1949 he was transferred to Bory prison in Plzeň. On 18 April the prison authorities announced that they had uncovered a plan for a prison uprising and mass escape. Bryks was among those accused of the allaged plot. He was tried on 11 May 1950 and found guilty. His sentence was extended with 20 years' hard labour and he was fined Kčs 20,000. His wife protested to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Rudolf Slánský, but got no answer.
  On 6 November 1950 Bryks was transferred to a prison at Opava in Czech Silesia. There other former RAF political prisoners included Karel Janoušek. Bryks was insubordinate and resisted the prison authorities. On 18 June 1952 he was transferred to Leopoldov Prison, a converted 17th-century fortress in Slovakia. There he continued to resist the prison authorities, and he was again accused of planning to escape.
caption: Bryks as a prisoner in Bory prison in Plzeň in 1949
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "BenQ", "Image Model": "DC C530", "Image Software": "V0.28B", "Image DateTime": "2006:02:04 00:04:10", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "522", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 33, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "15793/1000000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:02:04 00:04:10", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:02:04 00:04:10", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}