Viktor Alter

Viktor (Wiktor) Alter was born in Mlawa, Poland, and moved to Warsaw at the turn of the twentieth century. After studying engineering in Belgium, and fostering Bundist and socialist ideas there, Alter returned to Warsaw in 1912 and continued organizing for the Bund. After a short sojourn in postrevolutionary Russia, he returned to Poland to continue his work for the Bund, being disenchanted with the possibilities of collaborating with Bolshevism. Alter was a central figure in the Jewish trade unionist movement, and was influential, along with Henryk Erlich, in the Bund’s decision to become a member of the Labor and Socialist International. Like Erlich, Alter was a victim of volatile and deadly Soviet politics. In September 1939, he was arrested by the Soviet police and was interrogated for months, sentenced to death in July 1941. He was then released in September 1941 and became one of the organizers of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, only to be rearrested in December of the same year. He was executed by firing squad in 1943.