My friends turned to ashes, but I live. It used to be my nightmare
Pavel Traubner was born on May 2, 1941 in Ilava. He and his parents survived the Holocaust only thanks to his father, who as a dentist treated one policeman, that came to warn them to hide. Otherwise, the whole family would be transported abroad. They were hiding and in 1944 they even had to hide in the woods covered by spruce branches. After the war they returned to Ilava, where they were provided with a state flat, as they lost the one, they – as Jews – rented prior to war. Pavel studied medicine and after the graduation he worked at the department of pathological anatomy; since 1966 he transferred to neurology. In 1991 he was appointed professor and in the same year he also became the head of the First Department of Neurology of the University Hospital in Bratislava. He stayed there until 2008. From 2000 to 2007 he worked as a Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Comenius University. Until present days he has been an honorary chairman of the Central Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Slovakia, and at the same time, also an honorary president of the organization B’nai B’rith International.