Luksha, Juozas

Born on August 10, 1921 in the village of Juodbudis Prienai district of Marijampolė county . During his studies at the gymnasium, he was a member of the Catholic youth nationalist organization Ateitininkai ^[1]

After Lithuania joined the USSR in 1940, Luksha joined the ranks of the anti-Soviet resistance. On March 4, 1941, he became a member of the Lithuanian front of activists , but on June 6 he was arrested by the NKVD . Charged with belonging to a secret organization that intended to restore the independence of Lithuania, he was charged on 21 June. However, on June 22, the war and the Wehrmacht invasion of Lithuania began ^[2] .

After the beginning of the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany , according to some data, he took part in the massacres of Jews in Kaunas in June 1941. During the German occupation, he studied at the University of Kaunas as an architect. Lithuanian sources claim that during this period he participated in underground activities against the Germans ^[1] .

Since June 1944, as part of the anti-Soviet underground, he participated in the creation of the Lithuanian struggle for freedom movement . At the end of 1947, the commander of the Tura district guerrillas, A. Baltusis-Zvyas, sent Luksha as a representative of the Lithuanian resistance to the West ^[3] . Burst through the Lithuanian-Polish border with a detachment of Krikshunas. Almost the entire detachment was destroyed, but Luksha managed to get to Sweden ^[4] .

He also lived in Germany , France and the USA . He published books "The Partisans Behind the Iron Curtain" and "Fighters for Freedom." He graduated from the intelligence school. In Paris, he met Nyela Braženaitė and married her ^{[5] [6]} .

According to various sources, in the fall of 1949 or in the spring of 1950, at the head of the reconnaissance group, which also included two more Lithuanians, was dropped on a parachute in Lithuania. He received the rank of major "guerrilla army", created a detachment of about 20 people. On September 4, 1951, he was killed not far from Kaunas during an operation to be captured by operatives of the USSR MGB ^[4] . The burial place of the body is unknown ^[7] .

Circumstances of Death

The operation to capture Luksha was planned by the USSR Ministry of State Security , the group was headed by Deputy Minister Yevgeny Pitovranov who flew to Lithuania from Moscow.

Following the group of Lukši, a group under the command of Širvis was parachuted into Lithuania, which was captured immediately after landing. According to the officer of the Ministry of State Security of Lithuania Nachman Dushansky , according to the results of the interrogation, a fake “Shirvis group” of state security agents was formed, which was to capture Luksha. The meeting of Lukša with the pseudo-Shirvis was scheduled in the town of Garliava , 12 km from Kaunas. On the road near the village of Pabarthupis an ambush was arranged. Despite the strictest order to take Luksha alive, the agent-conductor Hajnauskas suddenly shot Luksha at close range just before the ambush, because, according to him, Luksha suspected something and reached for a grenade ^{[4] [8]} .

In addition to Juozas, there were three more brothers in the family — Jurgis, Stasis, and Antanas ^[7] . All the Juozas brothers also took an active part in anti-Soviet resistance. Jurgis and Stasis died in 1947, Antanas was sentenced to 25 years of camps and 5 years of exile ^{[7] [9]} .

Antanas survived and returned to Lithuania in the late 1950s, married, has a son and a daughter ^{[10] [11]} . The Lithuanian Union is headed by political prisoners and exiles ^[12] .

A number of sources accuse Luksha of participating in the genocide of the Jews during the German occupation ^[13] .

Immediately after the war, Luksha was identified as one of the participants in the massacre in the Kaunas garage ^{[4] [14] [15]} . The Jews who survived the Holocaust claim that Luksha personally cut off the head of Rabbi Zalman Ossovsky, put it on public display and said that it would be the same with all Jews ^{[5] [16] [17] [18]} . Soviet State Security Officer Nakhman Dushansky argued that the charges against Luksha are based on archival documents and confirmed by testimony ^[4] .

Luksha's relatives deny his participation in the killings and the Lithuanian prosecutor’s office initiated a libel case against the leadership of the Association of Lithuanian Jews in Israel, which published charges against Luksha ^{[19] [20] [21]} .

After the restoration of Lithuanian independence, Lukša is considered a national hero ^[22] , in 1997 he was awarded the Order of the Cross of Vitis . The place of his death since 2008 has been declared a cultural monument ^[23] , a gymnasium is named after him in Garliava ^[24] . In 2004, director Jonas Vaitkus produced the film “Just One,” based on the life story of Luksha, played by Saulus Balandis ^[25] . About Luxu also shot the documentary “The Invisible Front” by Swedish director Jonas Ohman ^{[26] [27]} .

• Juozas Daumantas. Fighters For Freedom: Lithuanian Partisans Versus The USSR (1944-1947). - Manyland Books, 1975. - 279 p. - ISBN 9780871410498 .
• Juozas Lukša. Anti-Soviet Lithuanian Freedom Fighter, 1944–1948 / translated by Laima Vincė. - Budapest: Central European University Press, 2009. - 411 p. - ISBN 9789639776371 .
• Partizanai u geležinės uždangos, apie Lietuvos partizanai | Lietuvos partizanus, Čikaga, 1950 m., 2-as leidimas, Čikaga, 1962 m., 3-as pataisytas ir papildytas leidimas, Vilnius, 1990.
• Juozas Lukša-Daumantas. Laiškai mylimosioms. - 2-as leidimas. - Kaunas: „Į LAISVĘ" Fondo lietuviškai kultūrai ugdyti Lietuvos filialas, 1994. - 247 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 9986-541-00-X . (1 edition was in 1993 in Chicago)
• Skogsbröder, (Swede.) , Stokholm, 2005.

• Minimos Daumanto gimimo ir mirties metinės
• Juozas Lukša-Daumantas (lit.) . Biografas.lt (July 12, 2011). The date of circulation is October 20, 2012. Archived December 18, 2012.
• Slavenas MG Book Review. Juozas Lukša. Forest Brothers: The Lithuanian Freedom Fighter: 1944 - 1948. (English) // Lithuanian Quarterly Journal of Arts and Sciences. - LITUANUS Foundation, Fall 2011. - Vol. 57, no. 3 - ISSN 0024-5089 .
• Juozas Lukša-Daumantas Partizanas, Lietuvos Laisvės Kovos Sąjūdžio Atstovas Užsienyje (lit.) . Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas (2011). The appeal date is November 13, 2014.
• Invisible Front on YouTube (English) (trailer)