The escapee from Birkenau concentration camp, writer. He was born to the family of factory workers, and during the transport taking place in 1942, he was sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Together with Rudolf Vrba, he managed to escape from this closely guarded camp. The successful action took place in the evening of April 7, 1944. In 11 hours, they got to the territory of Slovakia. When they got to the town of Čadca, they wrote a report explaining what is happening in Auschwitz. The report truthfully describing cruel Nazi conditions spread quickly around the world and changed the view on deportations. In 1945, he published the brochure Auschwitz, the Tomb of Four Million People, written as a factual account. He wrote also a novel about his experience - "What Dante Did Not See" which he published under the pen name Jozef Lánik. After the war, he worked as a factory worker in Bratislava, and later, during his retirement, he worked in a library. He died in Bratislava. In 1997, he was awarded the state decoration - Order of the Ľudovít Štúr II. class, in memoriam - by the president Michal Kováč.

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