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I was born on 29th July 1919 in Topolcany. I spent my early childhood at home in the care of my mother and siblings. I know that I didn't go to nursery school, and especially my older sister Valeria helped my mother take care of me, and then my older brother, Leo, also helped. He helped by walking me to school, especially in winter, when there was a lot of snow. He'd put me on a sleigh and take me to school, because he was mostly unemployed and didn't have to go to work.
I absolved my elementary schooling in Topolcany at the Jewish elementary school. There I learned to read Hebrew, because in Jewish elementary school, we had general subjects in the morning, and every day after lunch, two hours of religion. In Hebrew it was called cheder, that literally meant room, but it actually means a classroom for teaching the basics of the Talmud. There I learned to read Hebrew. I was a good student. So good that my Grade 4 homeroom teacher insisted that I not got to Grade 5, but right into high school.
My parents signed me up at the Theological High School in Nitra, where the teachers were mainly priests. The principal was also a priest, and the well- known Professor Damborsky had also taught there. [Damborsky, Jan (1880 - 1923): linguist, archivist, high school teacher and journalist.] He was one of the first to create a Slovak grammar textbook. Always, when it was time for Catholic religion class, we were free, and could go out. We had that hour off. There were no manifestations of anti-Semitism at school. You could say that it was a quite tolerant school. The only problem was that they taught on Saturday as well. Well, and as we couldn't travel on Saturday, that was a sin, I lived in Nitra. I was taken in by one family in Nitra, the Schillers, where I always slept over from Friday to Saturday, and where they also invited me on Friday evening and for lunch on Saturday. Then on Saturday evening I returned home by train to Topolcany. But that lasted only about a half year. Because although I was an exemplary student, in half a year I had a four [an E] in drawing. Thus I was forced to pay tuition. Because I didn't have money, I left school.
I returned to Topolcany and transferred to the local town school. There I attended the first and second year and then transferred to the high school in Preividza. My favorite subject at school was Latin. I liked it so much that I read it under my desk on the sly. Even Latin classics, Tacit, Ovid, Cicero. I liked it very much, and mainly because for me Latin was logic carried over into language. Very few languages are as exactly logically constructed as Latin. And this enticed me, because it taught me to think logically. That's what I liked the most. To this day I have no problem translating Latin texts. Besides this, Latin helps me in that I can basically understand all Romance languages. Not even Romanian is foreign to me. I also had French in high school. So I also learned French and don't get lost in it. I know how to read Romanian, know what I'm reading and know the same in Spanish. And I can follow French texts on television. So this is what is typical for the Jewish community, that most of us know two or three languages. I'm not even mentioning Czech, that's a matter of course.
But back to my favorite subjects. I also liked history. It also attracted me. And I read a lot of books in the vein of documentary literature. I was rather inclined to the humanities. Subjects that had to do with science didn't attract me at all; to this day I still have what they call in German 'Angstträume' - nightmares, that I have to do my final exams in physics. Today I'm very interested in physics, especially nuclear science, because that relates to cosmic questions and that very much interests me. But back then it was really a nightmare for me. To this day I know what sort of question they asked me at my final exam: What is the final effect of one convex, concave lens? I remember that I didn't have the least idea. But Mr. Kolc, the physics professor, who really wanted me to graduate, actually answered the question for me. The only thing from science that I knew was that there are two circulatory systems for blood. One small system and one large one.
I was a relatively good student. I belonged to the better part of the class. To the degree, that when we had a class with one relatively strict teacher, who was named Cervinka, and when the class didn't want him to test us, they had me ask him questions. And I, who at that time was already concerning myself with Marxism, would ask him questions. He taught us philosophy. I would ask him about things that I had read about in books at home, and in this way kept him busy. And he didn't realize that it was the end of the class until the bell rang, and by then it was too late to test us.
During my studies in Prievidza I lived at Mr. Löwingerova's for thirty crowns a month, in a loft where she stored apples. My entire furniture consisted of one bed mat, one trunk a meter square - that served as my table, then one stool and one petroleum lamp. And that was all the furniture. But it had one advantage, for I didn't have my board taken care of, and Jews had this custom that you could eat with a different family every day. But I only had my board taken care of six days out of the week. That means that one day I had no place to eat. I would have gone hungry that day, if it wasn't for the fact that I had a classmate and friend [Richard Heumann], who was the son of the richest Jew in Prievidza. Instead of one snack he used to bring two with him to class. So I ate his snack, that was my lunch, and after lunch I'd go to his place and there I'd get cocoa and cake. I was quite dependent on them. I graduated from high school in Prievidza in the year 1938.
I absolved my elementary schooling in Topolcany at the Jewish elementary school. There I learned to read Hebrew, because in Jewish elementary school, we had general subjects in the morning, and every day after lunch, two hours of religion. In Hebrew it was called cheder, that literally meant room, but it actually means a classroom for teaching the basics of the Talmud. There I learned to read Hebrew. I was a good student. So good that my Grade 4 homeroom teacher insisted that I not got to Grade 5, but right into high school.
My parents signed me up at the Theological High School in Nitra, where the teachers were mainly priests. The principal was also a priest, and the well- known Professor Damborsky had also taught there. [Damborsky, Jan (1880 - 1923): linguist, archivist, high school teacher and journalist.] He was one of the first to create a Slovak grammar textbook. Always, when it was time for Catholic religion class, we were free, and could go out. We had that hour off. There were no manifestations of anti-Semitism at school. You could say that it was a quite tolerant school. The only problem was that they taught on Saturday as well. Well, and as we couldn't travel on Saturday, that was a sin, I lived in Nitra. I was taken in by one family in Nitra, the Schillers, where I always slept over from Friday to Saturday, and where they also invited me on Friday evening and for lunch on Saturday. Then on Saturday evening I returned home by train to Topolcany. But that lasted only about a half year. Because although I was an exemplary student, in half a year I had a four [an E] in drawing. Thus I was forced to pay tuition. Because I didn't have money, I left school.
I returned to Topolcany and transferred to the local town school. There I attended the first and second year and then transferred to the high school in Preividza. My favorite subject at school was Latin. I liked it so much that I read it under my desk on the sly. Even Latin classics, Tacit, Ovid, Cicero. I liked it very much, and mainly because for me Latin was logic carried over into language. Very few languages are as exactly logically constructed as Latin. And this enticed me, because it taught me to think logically. That's what I liked the most. To this day I have no problem translating Latin texts. Besides this, Latin helps me in that I can basically understand all Romance languages. Not even Romanian is foreign to me. I also had French in high school. So I also learned French and don't get lost in it. I know how to read Romanian, know what I'm reading and know the same in Spanish. And I can follow French texts on television. So this is what is typical for the Jewish community, that most of us know two or three languages. I'm not even mentioning Czech, that's a matter of course.
But back to my favorite subjects. I also liked history. It also attracted me. And I read a lot of books in the vein of documentary literature. I was rather inclined to the humanities. Subjects that had to do with science didn't attract me at all; to this day I still have what they call in German 'Angstträume' - nightmares, that I have to do my final exams in physics. Today I'm very interested in physics, especially nuclear science, because that relates to cosmic questions and that very much interests me. But back then it was really a nightmare for me. To this day I know what sort of question they asked me at my final exam: What is the final effect of one convex, concave lens? I remember that I didn't have the least idea. But Mr. Kolc, the physics professor, who really wanted me to graduate, actually answered the question for me. The only thing from science that I knew was that there are two circulatory systems for blood. One small system and one large one.
I was a relatively good student. I belonged to the better part of the class. To the degree, that when we had a class with one relatively strict teacher, who was named Cervinka, and when the class didn't want him to test us, they had me ask him questions. And I, who at that time was already concerning myself with Marxism, would ask him questions. He taught us philosophy. I would ask him about things that I had read about in books at home, and in this way kept him busy. And he didn't realize that it was the end of the class until the bell rang, and by then it was too late to test us.
During my studies in Prievidza I lived at Mr. Löwingerova's for thirty crowns a month, in a loft where she stored apples. My entire furniture consisted of one bed mat, one trunk a meter square - that served as my table, then one stool and one petroleum lamp. And that was all the furniture. But it had one advantage, for I didn't have my board taken care of, and Jews had this custom that you could eat with a different family every day. But I only had my board taken care of six days out of the week. That means that one day I had no place to eat. I would have gone hungry that day, if it wasn't for the fact that I had a classmate and friend [Richard Heumann], who was the son of the richest Jew in Prievidza. Instead of one snack he used to bring two with him to class. So I ate his snack, that was my lunch, and after lunch I'd go to his place and there I'd get cocoa and cake. I was quite dependent on them. I graduated from high school in Prievidza in the year 1938.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Alexander Bachnar