Alexander Sachal

Who is Alexander Sachal?

Alexander P. Sachal, born November 1924 in Kiev, Ukraine, is a Russian artist who lives in the United States.

Sachal's mother moved to Moscow when he was six, where his childhood was hard and lonely. He joined the Fine Arts School in Moscow at the age of 16; his drawings and designs were featured on many of Joseph Stalin's posters.

At 17, he joined the Russian Army during World War II, and fought on the North Caucasian Front. He was sent back to Moscow to recover from injuries from an explosion in his machine-gun nest, and later returned to the front line again. Captured by the Germans, he was forced to work in iron-ore mines at Alsace-Lorraine. He escaped the prisoner-of-war camp after a year and a half, in March 1944, and spent four weeks walking to Burgundy, France. However on arrival, he was imprisoned for vagrancy by French police. Later he joined the French Resistance, under the code name Le Jeune Russe, but was machine-gunned down and severely wounded by Germans. Fortunately he was rescued and hidden in safety by a French family until the arrival of the Allied Forces. Sachal received the Croix de Guerre for his bravery.