Background
Salcer was born in the Slovak village of Neporazda to a wealthy family but was raised in Jelšava which became part of Hungary following the division and occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany and fascist Hungary.
Salcer was born in the Slovak village of Neporazda to a wealthy family but was raised in Jelšava which became part of Hungary following the division and occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany and fascist Hungary.
He moved to Budapest and since Jewish students were banned from the Universities in Hungary, he took engineering courses in high school and worked as a welder"s assistant while rooming with an uncle. An illness forced him to return to Jelšava, where he was made a forced laborer and made to repair tanks for the Wehrmacht, shortly thereafter, in advanced of Soviet Red Army, he and his fellow prisoners were force-marched to the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. After he was liberated, Salcer attempted to recover his families lost wealth, but was unable to do southern
He experienced further discrimination in Czechoslovakia and fled to Israel, after receiving a draft notice for the Czechoslovak Army.
After arrival in Israel, Salcer worked with the Haganah, where he designed tanks and armored cars and later designed jet engines for the Israeli Air Force. In 1952, after his discharge, he started a rubber factory and was elected to be the head of the association of Israeli manufacturers at age 28.
After the Suez Crisis, in 1958 Salcer decided that Israel would experience endless warfare and immigrated to the United States, where he developed plastic tablecloths and a plastic display for earrings. He held 12 patents.
According to his biographer Donna Z. Rubenstone, Salcer died of leukemia in Manhattan.
He was 82.