Helped partisans and Jewish immigrants
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Pavel Bednár was born on 4 March, 1926 in a village of Nová Lehota in the hills near Považský Inovec in Slovakia as the eighth of eleven children to Jan and Pavla Bednárovi. The family lived in Kopanice Dolina, the neighbourhood of which was a refuge of a numerous partisan brigade Sněžinskij after the Slovak National Upraise. Kopanice Dolina was also a hide for many Jewish families, who would not survive without the help of inhabitants of the village. Even the family of Pavel Bednár was hiding a Jewish girl Maria (Goldstein?). Back then the eighteen years old witness became not only a connection of partisans, but also secretly brought money to Jewish families and necessary stuff. At the end of war the Bednárs were still hiding a partisan Bedřich König at home. After liberation Pavel Bednár left to Moravia, where he found Bedřich König in Stará Ves in Rýmařov region, who worked there as a national administrator in a shop. The witness apprenticed a business assistant and after changing several jobs he returned to a shop in Stará Ves, where he worked until retirement. Pavel Bednár passed away on April, the 23rd, 2024.
