Otto Tibor Biheller
Otto Tibor Biheller, Tibo or Tibi, was born in Ružomberok, Slovakia in 1913 (December 19). His father, Dr. Izidor Biheller, lawyer (successful co-defendant in Hungarian lawsuit against Mr. Andrej Hlinka in 1908) and his mother Gertrude Biheller, nee Rosenzweig, had two other sons, Fridrich and Josef.
Tibi obtained his GCE in Ružomberok in 1931 and pursued his further studies at University of Agriculture in Brno. After 5 years he graduated as agronomist. For further progress of his life it proved important that he passed through undergraduate military traning,too. Thus, he was able to join military unit as an officer (in his time of emigration to the USSR) after 1942.
Before WWII he was member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party and KOSTUFRA (communist student faction). This membership prevented him to be sent to Soviet GULAG system after he applied for political asylum in the USSR. He came to the USSR from Krakow/Male Broniewice, Poland where he met his future wife Ms. Rosa (Růženka), nee Neumannová. Their marriage was registered in Lwov (now Ukraine). In the USSR he worked as agronomist in one kolchoz.
In 1942 he applied for military service in Czechoslovak military unit and he was among the first soldiers who joined the First Czechoslovak Army Corps in town of Buzuluk, USSR. He might have some problems beacause of being a Jew, being a communist as well as being a husband of beautiful Ms. Růženka in combination with status of an army officer. He became an officer and commander of mortar platoon. He served during the whole war upto its end in May 1945. He received many Czechoslovak and Soviet military orders and medals.
As an active military officer he graduated the Czechoslovak Military Academy in 1948. In rank of captain/colonel he was promoted to diplomatic service as a military attaché for the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington D.C. His office had its branch for Mexico, i.e. he could operate limitlessly throughout the whole U.S. territory in the time of cold war on communism and era of Maccarthysm).
In early fifties (1951?), he was removed from his office in Washington, kicked out from his job in the Ministry of Defense, from service flat in Prague as well, and with the help of his pre-war friends he moved to southern Slovakia. In village of Malý Báb při Seredi he headed the Research Tobacco Institute till 1956. Later, he moved to his chalet in northern Bohemia and worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Prague. His major field was chemistry. Because of his knowledge and experience in German, Russian, Slovak, Hungarian, English, Latin he could be active in international co-operation events organized by the ministry. In 1963 he was upgraded to rank of colonel (retired) of Czechoslovak Popular Army, got his new form and obtained the Order Of Merit of Construction. He welcomed all events that happened before August 1968, he actively supported everything that should have resulted in better type of socialism, better social organisation and relations, better life for all.
In 1989 he was expelled from the Party, he was kicked out from his job in the ministry with label of „anti-sovietchik“, revisionist and a bad guy who had trusted wrong people (as expressed by one secret police official in late seventies). He was lucky that he had never got entangled with secret police, (counter)inteligence services. No spying on his family, friends, co-citizens and foreigners at all. Until the end of his days he was clear-minded, his hands were clean. He was a convinced humanist, wise, honest man and a true communist. Tibi died in the Central Military Hospital in Prague in July 1989., a month after his beloved Ruzenka (Rosa).
