Career
Buršík was persecuted by the communist authorities in Czechoslovakia. He was imprisoned and stripped of all his wartime decorations, except for the Hero of the Soviet Union award. Buršík managed to escape and made his way to the west.
He lived first in West Germany, then the United Kingdom.
He was active in organizations working to help Czechoslovakian and Slovak refugees. He published his memoirs "Number pity for victims" (Nelituj oběti) in the 1950s.
He died in Northampton, England and was buried with full military honors. Buršík was born in Stare Postřekov in the Chodsko region in Bohemia, at the time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In the interwar period he became an officer in the Czechoslovak Army.
After the Munich Agreement, the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the establishment of the Nazi client state, the Slovak Republic, about four thousand Czechoslovakian and Slovak soldiers and officers left their countries and went into exile in Poland. In April 1939, in cooperation with Polish authorities, they formed the "Czechoslovak Foreign Group", later in the year transformed into the Czechoslovakian and Slovak Legion. Josef Buršík joined the legion while it was being organized in Bronowice Małe (presently part of Krakow)
During the Nazi invasion of Poland the Czechoslovakian and Slovak Legion fought alongside the Poles against the Germans.
Buršík took part in defense of Tarnopol (today Tarnopil, Ukraine).
The Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17 in fulfillment of Stalin"s agreement with Hitler (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). Buršík and his unit were captured and imprisoned by the Soviets.
In 1942 Buršík joined the Soviet organized First Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion, under the command of Ludvik Svoboda. He started with a rank of corporal and was promoted to Warrant Officer.
The battalion first saw combat in the Battle of Sokolovo in March, 1943, and Buršík was wounded during the fighting.
The Czechoslovak battalion continued fighting on the Eastern Front until the end of the war. Buršík finished the war with the rank of captain. In Czechoslovakia, after recovering from tuberculosis, Buršík was given command of a tank brigade based in Ostrava.
In 1949 he left the Czechoslovak Army.
Shortly afterwards he was arrested for his anti-communist views and charged with treason. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, with an extra five added after he tried to appeal the verdict.
He was also stripped of all his military decorations except for the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. Because of his bad health Buršík was transferred to a hospital in Olomouc from which managed to escape and make his way across the border to Bavaria.
He lived in the Federal Republic of Germany until 1955 and subsequently moved to England.
