Bernard Knezo Schönbrun and his wife with a friend

This photo was taken in the 1990s, in the living room of our apartment in Bratislava. We had my friend, by the name of Rybar (first on the right), over for a visit. We had worked together in the Sixth Labor Battalion. Back then he was still named Fischer. After the war he changed his name. In the middle of the photograph is my wife Anna, and sitting on her right am I. As I've already mentioned, during the time of the Slovak State, we were members of the Sixth Battalion. After the war many of us moved away. The emigrants kept in touch with each other. In Tel Aviv they met every Friday, and they even had two worldwide gatherings. We who stayed here were isolated and didn't dare to meet publicly. Among us there were even those that denied being in the Sixth Battalion. After the Velvet Revolution, emigrants began to visit our spas and so we established contact with them. In 1992 we finally managed to get a few boys from the Sixth Battalion together. It was due to the impetus and money of one of us, a friend from the USA, by the name of Pivko, originally Pick. Besides the fact that he was rich, he had an excellent Jewish heart. With his money, we were able to support boys that were badly off, and widows of Sixth Battalion members that were in financial need. We also organized a reunion in Czechoslovakia, with many international participants, with his money. The reunion took place in 1992 in Piestany. Other conferences and reunions were in Bratislava. Within the scope of Sixth Battalion activities, in twelve years we did a lot of work in the interests of Sixth Battalion members and their widows. With the participation of many prominent Slovak historians and resistance members, we filled in many blank spots in the history of the creation, existence and dissolution of the Sixth Jewish Labor Battalion. In this way we also helped to bring to light part of Slovakia's history. We also documented the participation of Jewish boys in the resistance, as well as how many of them fell. We gained valuable materials from military archives. I was chairman of the Sixth Battalion for the entire twelve years. This was only possible because my wife helped me the entire time as well. Unfortunately our ranks are shrinking and now basically only my friend Bachnar, the widow Mrs. Borska and I devote ourselves to the Sixth Battalion. With the remnants of the money that we have, we'd like to have one more memorial plaque made, which we'd then have placed on Kozia Street in the building of the Central Federation of Jewish Religious Communities or in the building of the Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava. The first memorial plaque is in the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica.