[6] Her father, the son of an Erdberg coachman,[6] who himself worked as a master-brewer at the Ottakringer Brewery,[5] saw to it that she attended a Komenský (i.e. Czech language) school, and she was keen to pursue Slavic studies at a higher level, but this time her mother's uncompromisingly conservative convictions prevailed.

She was fascinated by the pacifist attitudes adopted by the Quakers: she found they fitted in well with the socialist precepts she had picked up from her father who had been politically active at the time of the Dual Monarchy.

[8] When the two of them married in 1935 their financial situation was dire, since Bruha had still been unable to find employment, and his wife's work as a hairdresser was poorly paid.

It was partly in order to supplement the household income that she continued to provide poems and short stories, now under the pseudonym Tana Bruhova, to the Czech-language (and later also German-language) socialist press.

[5] However, an early casualty of the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 was the university's Faculty of Slavonic Studies which was closed down by the Nazis.

Together they would bicycle to the frontier with Czechoslovakia, in a wooded area near Preßburg, in order to collect bundles of Socialist and Communist publications, banned in Austria, that had been left for them by comrades.

Fourteen days after the Nazis arrived he was re-employed by Siemens not in his previous post as a foreman, but as a divisional head, in charge of a department containing 300-400 women, two mechanics and his own typist (according to his wife).

Group members escorted Jews, escaping from the evolving hardships and dangers of state-mandated antisemitism, to the Swiss frontier.

Josef Bruha believed that it was impossible to be certain that no one would be hurt when a target was attacked, so refused to engage in sabotage actions, but the time came when he was sent to Berlin on a training course: Antonia took advantage of his absence to participate.

Already pregnant, she cycled with comrades, carrying a large quantity of chemicals that had been smuggled out of a factory, to a block of ten military storage depots containing uniforms, weapons and food rations, in Lobau.

Among those who perished, shot or beheaded,[6] were Alois Houdek himself and Franz Narkowitz, who had been one of those involved, with Bruha, in the Lobau "event".

However, they seem to have decided quite early on (and probably wrongly) that he was not involved in recent resistance activism, and after four days he was released for "lack of evidence".

[6] Only after she had been transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp, at least a year later, a fellow inmate would pass her a copy of a photograph sent by her husband from which she would be able to see that Sonja was alive.

For the Gestapo Sonja was valued chiefly as a means to apply pressure to her mother, forcing her to testify against resistance comrades.

Sources insist that Bruha resisted the pressure, however, and never betrayed anyone, despite being uncertain of her daughter's fate throughout the interrogations period.

One of them was her friend Irma Trksak, sister to Franz Narkowitz who had been a member of the Lobau team (and paid with his life for his involvement).

A camp doctor, faced with the challenge of investigating 200 newly arrived prisoners from Poland, asked for a simultaneous translator.

[5] And yet, she was able to risk her life by smuggling drugs to internees in the political block and by carefully switching index cards in the medical centre.

Bertl Lauscher, Irma Trksak and Toni Bruha agreed that their best chance of survival would be to join one of the last columns to leave the camp, and then take the first opportunity to escape.

Both with regard to family life and in respect of earning a living, re-establishing a "normal" existence presented huge challenges for the concentration camp survivors.

[1] During her first year at home Toni Bruha was permanently ill as a result of her treatment and the conditions at the concentration camp.

[5] (The Soviet occupation of eastern Austria ended early in 1955, after which audiences for Russian language radio programmes were no longer present in significant numbers.)

She also wrote contemporary history contributions for the book "Österreich April 1945" (produced by Franz Danimann und Hugo Pepper [de]) as well as providing contributions to the press, notably for Vídeňské svobodné listy [cs] ("Vienna Free Sheets"), the newly established Czech language newspaper in Vienna.

Especially remarkable was her volunteer work after 1968 to create and built up the Ravensbrück Archive section in the Documents Centre of the Austrian Resistance.

[5] Long before 1978, after which visits by contemporary witnesses to the Nazi horrors were included on school curricula and organised by the Ministry for Education, Antonia Bruha was making her own arrangements to speak to groups of young people about her resistance and concentration camp experiences.

Her lively and direct narrative style penetrated the hearts of many young listeners and inspired the political and personal commitment in new generations, necessary to avoid any tragic repeat of those Nazi years.

[5] By the time she addressed the annual "Austrian Ravensbrück Camp Community" meeting as a ninety year old Antonia Bruha was suffering badly with Diabetes and undergoing regular hospital stays, though friends insist that her willing assertiveness of an energetic commitment to democracy and freedom remained impressive.