Juozas Lukša

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Juozas Lukša (also known by nickname Daumantas or Skirmantas, born on August 10, 1921 in Juodbūdis village, Marijampolė district – killed September 4, 1951) was one of the most prominent post-World War II resistance leaders in Lithuania. During the first occupation by the Soviet Union in 1940-41, Lukša was a member of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF). Opposing the Soviets, he was caught and put in prison in Kaunas. After the war started in the Eastern Front and Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania, Lukša was released.

Soon he joined the anti-German resistance. From 1944, after the return of the Red Army, he engaged in the underground movement. At first he participated as a student, helping out with clandestine matters in Kaunas. In 1946 after the arrests of many activists, he left the city and joined the armed resistance in his home area. In 1947 he became a commander of Birutė brigade, in Tauras district that was active in Kaunas area.

In the end of 1947 he escaped through the Iron Curtain, as a messenger to the West in hopes to attract support for the fighters and to establish contacts with Lithuanians in exile. 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. In Paris he met with Nijolė Bražėnaitė, felt in love and got married. During the stay in the western countries, wrote a book Fighters for Freedom about the real situation in the Soviet Union. He returned to Lithuania by parachute in 1950. For a year he was intensively searched for by the Soviet counterintelligence. Finally he was lured into a trap and killed in fall 1951.

In 2003, director Jonas Vaitkus released a movie based on his life, Utterly Alone.