Alexander Bachnar

This photograph is from my railway pass, which I used when I was traveling to high school in Nitra. It was taken at the Aladar Vermes studio in Topolcany in the 1920s. 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. 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.