Andrej joined the movement in 1929. In 1930 his family moved to Bratislava where he continued to be active in the movement. In March 1942, with the beginning of the deportations, mainly of girls, from Slovakia, Andrej was sent by the movement to Budapest. He met Samu Stern, head of the Jewish community in Budapest, told him about the deportations and asked for his help in absorbing refugees arriving in Budapest from Slovakia. Stern categorically rejected his request saying: “I will allow no intruders to endanger the relative safety of Hungarian Jews”. In 1943 Andrej was arrested by the police, moved from one prison to another and sentenced to imprisonment on charges of forgery and slipping across the border. Andrej escaped from prison and arrived at the “Glass House” on Vadász Street. He immediately joined the underground activities and was part of the team in the forgery workshop. In December 1944, when the workshop was discovered, Andrej was arrested with David Gur and Miki Langer. He was interrogated, tortured and about to be executed. He was liberated in a daring operation of the Zionist underground.
After the liberation he organized children’s houses for the hungry orphaned Jewish children outside Budapest. For about six months he managed the children’s house in Békéscsaba. He returned to Budapest and worked in the children’s department of the International Red Cross.
In 1946 he traveled to Prague, registered at the university and completed his studies as an agricultural engineer. He published many researches and acquired an international reputation. He was a professor at the Prague University. He has been retired since 1989. He resides in Prague.
