Ladislav Hacker, Suzana Petrovic’s brother, at Purim party

Photo of my brother Ladislav Ivan Hacker taken in Novi Sad, 1936. My brother went to elementary school and then gymnasium. He studied painting and violin.  He was always a big anti-fascist.  In fact, he was in a secret communist youth group who tried to cause trouble for the occupying Hungarian army.  One night they threw nails under their trucks, got caught, and were taken to prison.  Two of the boys were shot, the others were sent to a prison in Szeged.  One strange thing was that the head of the prison let the boys’ mothers bring them food for all the Jewish holidays.  The boys were all Jewish, and only 16 and 17 years old.  

Ivan escaped the prison in 1944 and became a partizan soldier.  He participated in the final battle of the war in Yugoslavia.  

After the war, Ivan became completely disenchanted with the party and resigned.  Giving back your party book was considered very serious, and from that day on, he never rose being a simple high school math teacher, while all his friends climbed higher and higher at work.  Ivan died young, of a heart attack, in 1983, at 59.