Aleksandr Makeyev (1919-1942) (left) with a friend, 1937.
©Gedenkstätte Buchenwald
Aleksandr Makejew was born near Penza, Russia in 1919. He completed teacher training in 1939 and was soon teaching at two schools. He planned a joint future with Klava, a colleague. In 1940 he was conscripted into the Red Army, and in the summer of 1941 taken prisoner by the Germans. He was sent to Buchenwald on 18 October 1941. Debilitated by hunger and forced labour, Aleksandr died in Buchenwald on 3 January 1942. It was not until 1980 that his sister Ira learned where and how her brother had died.
