Petr Bachrach was born on 5 February 1929 in Bielsko in Polish Upper Silesia. In 1939 he fled to Slovakia, where he was in 1943 deported to a concentration camp. He managed to escape from the transport and joined the partisans, with whom he participated in the Slovak National Uprising. In 1945 he took part as a soldier in the liberation of Czechoslovakia. After the war he completed his education and continued his military career. In 1947 he went to Israel, where he fought in the Independence War, the Sinai War, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War and the Operation Peace for Galilee. Between 1990 and 2005 he lived in the Czech Republic.