Obrana Slezska (Defence of Silesia)

The resistance group Obrana Slezska (Defence of Silesia) was founded on November 12, 1938, in Hlavnice in the Opava region by demobilized reservists of the Czechoslovak Army and other Czechs living in the occupied borderlands in the Opava region. The group cooperated with the command of Obrana národa (Defence of the Nation) in Ostrava, gathered strategic information and smuggled weapons into Opava. During a raid against Obrana národa in Ostrava in the autumn of 1940, the Gestapo also got on the trail of the organisation Obrana Slezska and arrested about 50 of its members. Four of the group's leaders were executed in Wrocław on April 29, 1943.