Juozas Lukša also known by the pseudonymDaumantas or Skirmantas was one of the most prominent post-World War II leaders of the Lithuanian partisans, the anti-Soviet armed resistance.
Life
During the first occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940–41, Lukša was a member of the Lithuanian Activist Front. Opposing the Soviets, he was caught and imprisoned in Kaunas. After the war started in the Eastern Front and Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania, Lukša was released. From 1944, after the return of theRed Army, he engaged in the underground movement. At first he participated as a student, helping out with clandestine matters and unarmed resistance in Kaunas. In 1946, after the arrests of many activists, he left the city and joined the armed resistance. Within a year he commanded Birutė brigade of Tauras district that was active in Kaunas area. At the end of 1947, he along with fellow partisans Jurgis Krikščiūnas–Rimvydas and Kazimieras Pyplys–Mažytis crossed through the Iron Curtain as a messengers to the West in hopes to attract support for the fighters and to establish contacts with Lithuanians in exile. They carried information collected by partisans about Soviet repressions, killings and deportations, also a letter to Pope Pius XII explaining the situation in occupied Lithuania and asking for support for strugling nation. He first came to Sweden. Later he was engaged by the French intelligence and thereafter transferred to CIA, where he received training as an intelligence agent in West Germany. While in Paris he met a doctor Nijolė Bražėnaitė, fell in love and got married in 23rd July of 1950. During the stay in the West, he wrote a book Fighters for Freedom about the actual situation in the Soviet Union. He was parachuted back to Lithuania in 1950. For a year he was intensively searched for by the Soviet counterintelligence. Finally he was betrayed by fellow fighter Jonas Kukauskas and killed in fall 1951.
In 2003, director Jonas Vaitkus released a movie based on his life, Utterly Alone. In 2014, co-directors Jonas Ohman and Vincas Sruoginis released a documentary, The Invisible Front, of Lukša and his fellow Forest Brothers.
Awards
In 1950 Juozas Lukša was granted a title of Hero of Lithuanian Fights for Freedom, awarded with the Freedom Fight Cross with Swords. In 1951 he was granted a rank of major of partisans. In 1997, posthumously, Juozas Lukša was awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis.
Wartime Allegations
Controversy exists regarding Lukša's role during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania alleging his involved in Holocaust atrocities against Jews at the Kaunas pogrom. The Lithuanian government strongly disputes the allegations assertions with lawmakers proposing to make 2021 "the year of Juozas Luksa-Daumantas".
