Na československém nebi i ve španělských zákopech – Rudolf John (1912–2000)

The following study deals with the life of Rudolf John (1912–2000) from Šumperk in northern Moravia. A graduate of the School for Aviation Cadets, he had served as the Czechoslovak Army Air Force’s NCO until he was forced to quit in 1935. In January 1937, the Spanish Civil War saw John volunteering in the Dimitrov infantry battalion, where he got seriously wounded. He returned, newly wed to a Spanish wife, to Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1938. He spent the following wartime years in Šumperk engaged in the resistance until he was arrested by the Gestapo in March 1944 and subsequently jailed in Troppau, Theresienstadt and Dresden. After the country’s liberation, John resumed his family life in Šumperk, worked as a cinema manager and used his experience in aviation to help establish a local flying club.