Alexander Bachnár papers, Bratislava component collection

Alexander Bachnár (né Bachner) was born on July 29, 1919 in Topolčany, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) to painter Jakub Bachner and his wife Františka Bachner (née Steckauer). He attended the Pedagogical School in Bratislava until anti-Semitic measure forced him out. He was drafted into the Sixth Labor Battalion (VI Prapor) in February 1940 and transferred to the Nováky labor camp for Jews in June 1942, where he performed manual labor, taught children, and served as the camp’s primary school director. When the Slovak National Uprising began and the Nováky labor camp was liquidated in August 1944, Bachnár participated in the uprising, took command of a Jewish partisan group, and took part in the fighting in central Slovakia. He, his sister Ela, and his father were the only members of their large family to survive the Holocaust. After the war, he worked as a journalist and editor for Bojovník, the Pravda printing house, the daily Práca, and at the Institute of Health Education. He was fired from both Pravda and Práca for political reasons and expelled from the Communist Party in 1968 or 1969. He served as Secretary General of the National Anti-Fascist Committee from 1989-1995.