Victor Alter | |
|---|---|
 Alter in 1936 | |
| Born | (1890-02-07)7 February 1890 |
| Died | 17 February 1943(1943-02-17) (aged 53) |
| Occupation(s) | Bundist leader and activist |
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Victor Alter (alsoWiktor Alter; 7 February 1890 – 17 February 1943) was a PolishJewishsocialist activist andBund publicist, and a member of the executive committee of theSecond International.
Alter studied inBelgium, at theUniversity of Ghent where he received a degree inmechanical engineering in 1912.[1] Afterward he returned toWarsaw. In April 1913 he was arrested byTsarist authorities for his activism for the Bund and was exiled to Siberia.[1] He managed to escape and soon made his way toGreat Britain[1] where he joined theLabour Party. DuringWorld War I he took part in the campaign ofconscientious objector and refused military service. After the February Revolution he moved to Russia.[1] In December 1917 he became a member of theCentral Committee of the Bund.[1]
From 1918 on he resided innewly independent Poland.[1] He was one of the leaders of the Polish Bund in the interwar period, associated with the organization's left wing. He was in favor of closer cooperation with thePolish Socialist Party, and opposed theComintern and thePolish Communist Party.[1] During this time he was also a member ofWarsaw City Council.[1]
In September 1939 after theGerman invasion of Poland, and the subsequentSoviet invasion of Poland he found himself in the Soviet occupied zone. On 29 September he was arrested by theNKVD.[1] In July 1941 he was sentenced to death by the Soviet authorities, although the sentence was later commuted to ten years in theGulag.[1] After theNazi invasion of Soviet Union, and the signing of theSikorski–Mayski Agreement between thePolish Government in Exile and the Soviet Union he was released from the gulag.[1]
He began to organize the InternationalJewish Anti-Fascist Committee.[1] During this time he established contacts withStanisław Kot, the Polish ambassador in Moscow, and called for Polish Jews in the Soviet Union to join the PolishAnders Army.[2] In October 1941, Alter, together withHenrik Erlich were placed by the Soviet authorities in a hotel inKuibishev (Samar). During private conversations, which were taped and reported toJoseph Stalin, the two discussed the rumors about the murder of Polish officers, including many Polish Jews, atKatyn.[2] On 4 December 1941, he was again arrested by the NKVD, together with Erlich[2] and murdered, although the precise details about his death are unknown.[1] According to some reports, he was sentenced to death on 23 December 1941, and immediately executed. Other sources state that his execution did not take place until February 1943. The death sentence was signed byVyacheslav Molotov in a note toLavrentiy Beria, stating that Stalin had personally approved the order.[3]
In 1943, Soviet authorities issued a communique which announced that Victor Alter had been executed for "spying for Hitler". His execution, on Stalin's orders,[4] provoked an international outcry.[1]
On 8 February 1991 Victor Erlich, the son of Henryk Erlich was informed that according to a decree passed underRussian presidentBoris Yeltsin, Victor Alter, together with Erlich had been "rehabilitated" and the repressions against them had been declared unlawful.[3]
While the exact place where he was buried is unknown, a symbolic monument was erected at theJewish cemetery on Okopowa street in Warsaw on 17 April 1988. The inscription reads "Leaders of the Bund, Henryk Erlich, b. 1882, and Wiktor Alter, b. 1890. Executed in the Soviet Union". The establishment of the monument (as well as the publication of the full story of Alter and Erlich) was opposed by Poland's post-warcommunist government and was only made possible due to the efforts ofMarek Edelman (surviving participant of theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising and a Bundist) and members of thePolish Solidarity Union.[3] The commemoration ceremony was attended by over three thousand people.[3]
Victor Alter published several books, including:
He also published numerous articles in the socialist press.
