Josef Müller

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Josef Müller was born on 18 October 1920 in Čop, Subcarpathian Ruthenia, then part of Czechoslovakia, into a Jewish family with five sons. In 1924, his family moved to Kaposvár, Hungary. He grew up speaking Hungarian and encountered antisemitism long before the war. He was subsequently conscripted into a Jewish forced-labour unit of the Hungarian Army, where prisoners endured humiliation, beatings and exhausting work.

In 1942, his unit was sent to the Eastern Front near the Don River, digging trenches, repairing roads and burying murdered civilians. Hunger, cold and violence killed many of his fellow labourers. In early 1943, Müller escaped across the frozen Don with the help of Sergeant Hladký, another native of Čop, who carried him when he was too weak to walk. After reaching Soviet lines, Müller worked in a military hospital.

In May 1943, he joined the 1st Czechoslovak Independent Brigade in the Soviet Union, forming at Novokhopyorsk. Assigned to a mortar company commanded by František Bedřich, he learned Czech during training and entered combat as a mortar gunner. He fought at Kyiv, Bila Tserkva and Buzovka, later taking part in the Carpathian-Dukla operation and the liberation of Slovakia.

Wounded by shellfire on 12 February 1945, he subsequently transferred to the Armoured Car Battalion of the Special Motorised Group, 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. As an armoured-car commander, he reached Prague on 10 May 1945. His decorations included two Czechoslovak War Crosses 1939 and the Medal for Bravery before the Enemy. Most of his family had been murdered in the Holocaust.

In January 1949, Müller emigrated to Israel, where he rebuilt his life and later served during the 1956 Sinai War. He eventually settled in Kiryat Haim near Haifa. Historian Jiri Kluc, founder of Witnesses of War, documented his experiences in the book Josef Müller: The Story of a Czech Soldier on the Eastern Front, published in 2020. Josef Müller died on 22 July 2021, aged 100.