He was transferring across the border in the resistance group „Titan“
Stáhnout obrázek
Josef Brázda was born on February 14, 1924 in Doubravník. His father worked as a labourer at the ČSD, his mother stayed at home. After completing five grades at the municipal school in Doubravník, he began to study at the grammar school in Tišnov, where he also graduated in 1943. At the end of the same year, he joined the Vítkovice Ironworks as an auxiliary worker, and in July 1944 the labour office deployed him to the bombed-out aircraft engine factory near Kuřim. For several weeks he worked at Hnátnice near Ústí nad Orlicí and Brodek near Přerov. After the war, he began teaching as an externship at the National School in Mikulov and in 1946 he passed the teacher‘s exam at the Teacher‘s Institute in Brno. In October of the same year he was drafted into the army, and in the summer of 1947 he took part with his unit in the action against the Bandera group in Slovakia for three months. After returning from the war in September 1948, he resumed teaching at the secondary school in Valtice. In addition to his teaching profession, he soon became involved in anti-regime activities. As early as 1949 he had already smuggled several people across the border into Austria. From the beginning of 1950 he was actively involved in the activities of the resistance group „Titan“, whose radius of action included a large part of southern Moravia. The leader of the group, Vladimír Zelený, assigned him tasks concerning the smuggling of people across the state border and the distribution of anti-regime leaflets. Josef Brázda did indeed succeed in smuggling some persons across the state border, who subsequently made contact with the American intelligence service CIC in Austria. In addition to the smuggling, he also distributed anti-regime leaflets. He was first arrested by the StB in March 1951, but was still released at that time. Two months later he was arrested for good. He was interrogated in the well-known StB interrogation room in Příční Street in Brno, where he spent several months in solitary confinement. The trial of the 29 members of the Titan group - Vladimír Zelený and Co. - took place at the State Court in Brno from February 4-9, 1952. On the last day of the trial, Josef Brázda was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for treason. However, the prosecutor appealed against the sentence. The Supreme Court in Prague increased Brázda‘s prison sentence to 16 years by its order of May 14, 1952. For the next 9 years Josef Brázda was gradually imprisoned, first at Mírovo, and then in the labour camps at the uranium mines at Jáchymov - specifically at Camp Nikolaj or Penal Camp „L“. He was released thanks to a presidential amnesty in May 1960. Until his retirement, he worked as a labourer. After the fall of communism, he received an award as a participant in the anti-communist resistance. He died on April 16, 2018.
